WILDFLOWERS OF NEW MEXICO

This 3–12-inch tall lupine has spreading, mat-like to bushy stems, flower clusters with only a few blooms at a time, and leaves, flowers, and seeds covered with long hairs. Note the well developed stems with leaves at nodes, and one-seeded pods.

FLOWER: June–August. Flower stem (peduncle) 0–3 3/4-inches long (0–9.5 cm) tipped with a short spike with 5–12 bilaterally symmetrical, blue-purple flowers, each to 3/8–inch long (10 mm); 5 petals – upper banner petal with 2 lobes and a central yellow to white spot, 2 wing petals that conceal 2 fused central keel petals. Note the two lobes on the calyx (below and cupping the petals) are equal. Fruit is a hairy pod with a pointed tip and only one seed.

LEAVES: Basal and alternate on stem. Blades palmately compound with 5–7 leaflets 1/4–7/8–inch long (7–23 mm); both surfaces (especially bottom) hairy, and margins with long hairs.

HABITAT: Sandy, gravelly, clay soils, roadsides, disturbed areas, open woodlands, moist meadows; desert grasslands, sagebrush, pinyon-juniper, ponderosa woodlands.

ELEVATION: 6,000–7,800 feet.

RANGE: AZ, CO, NM, NV, UT.

SIMILAR SPECIES:  Bajada Lupine, L. concinnus, in so. NM, has densely hairy leaves, erect, branching stems, and pods with 2–4 seeds. Shortstem Lupine, L. brevicaulis, has 1–2-seeded pods and 6–8 leaflets 3/8–5/8-inch long (10–15 mm), hairless on the upper surface and densely hairy on the bottom and edges. Dwarf Lupine, L. pusillus, in the same nw range, has leaves with mostly hairless upper surfaces and pods with 2 seeds.

NM COUNTIES: Western half of NM in mid-elevation open habitats: Bernalillo, Catron, Cibola, Dona Ana, Grant, Hidalgo, Los Alamos, McKinley, Rio Arriba, Roosevelt, Sandoval, Santa Fe, San Juan, San Miguel, Sierra, Socorro, Taos, Torrance, Valencia.