WILDFLOWERS OF NEW MEXICO

Numerous palmate leaves with long, green to reddish stalks (petioles) covered with long hairs sprout from a stemless (or less than 4–inch-tall) base. Note the leaflets are hairless on the upper surface and densely hairy on the bottom and edges, the pea-like flowers bloom in a dense, rounded cluster on a 1–2-inch stalk (peduncle), and hairy pods have 1–2 seeds.

FLOWER: April–July. Rounded cluster of blue to purple flowers at the tip of a 1–2–inch tall (2–5 cm) stem (peduncle); flowers bilaterally symmetrical with an upper banner petal creased in the middle with a central white to yellow spot, 2 side wings, and a keel of 2 united, hairless petals. The silky-hairy base (calyx) has a short upper lobe and long lower lobe. Fruit is a densely hairy pod about 3/8–inch long (10 mm) with 1–2 seeds.

LEAVES: Crowded near base; alternate on stem. Blades palmately compound with a 1–2-inch long (2–5 cm), hairy petiole, 6–8 leaflets, 3/8–5/8-inch long (10–15 mm); upper surface hairless, lower surface and margins densely covered with long hairs; leaflets often held horizontal and folded cup-like.

HABITAT: Dry, sandy soils, desert washes, canyons, mesas; desert scrub and grasslands, pinyon-juniper woodlands.

ELEVATION: 4,000–7,550 feet.

RANGE: AZ, CA, CO, NM, NV, OR, UT, WY

SIMILAR SPECIES: Also small and hairy, King’s Lupine, L. kingii, in much the same range, reaches 8-inches tall with an elongated flower spike, leaflets 3/8–1-inch long (10–23 mm) and hairy on both sides, and one-seeded pods. Dwarf Lupine, L. pusillus, mostly in no. NM, reaches 10-inches tall with an elongated flower spike.

NM COUNTIES: Western half of NM in low- to mid-elevation, arid habitats: Bernalillo, Catron, Cibola, Dona Ana, Hidalgo, Grant, Luna, McKinley, Rio Arriba, Sandoval, San Juan, Socorro, Taos.