Lupinus sparsiflorus – Coulter's Lupine

Lupinus sparsiflorus - Coulter's Lupine, Mojave Lupine (blue flowers)

Lupinus sparsiflorus - Coulter's Lupine, Mojave Lupine (white flowers)

Lupinus sparsiflorus - Coulter's Lupine, Mojave Lupine

Lupinus sparsiflorus - Coulter's Lupine, Mojave Lupine

Plant Name

Scientific Name: Lupinus sparsiflorus

Common Names: Coulter's Lupine, Mojave Lupine

Plant Characteristics

Duration: Annual

Growth Habit: Herb/Forb

Arizona Native Status: Native

Habitat: Desert

Flower Color: Violet-blue, White (rare)

Flowering Season: Winter (late), Spring

Height: To 16 inches (41 cm) tall

Description: The pea-like flowers are spiraled around the hairy, upright flower spikes. The individual flowers are 1/2 inch (1.3 cm) long and have a brown-spotted, yellow and white banner spot that becomes magenta-tinged with age. The keel petals curve upward and have a hairy fringe. The leaves are green and palmately compound with 7 to 11 linear to narrowly oblanceolate, partly folded leaflets. The upper surfaces of the leaflets are covered in spreading and flat-lying hairs and are hairiest near the margins.

The similar Arizona Lupine (Lupinus arizonicus) has pinkish purple flowers and broader leaflets with no hair on the upper surfaces.

Special Characteristics

Poisonous – The plants and most especially the seeds are poisonous and contain toxic quinolizidine alkaloids including lupinine and sparteine.

Classification

Kingdom: Plantae – Plants
Subkingdom: Tracheobionta – Vascular plants
Superdivision: Spermatophyta – Seed plants
Division: Magnoliophyta – Flowering plants
Class: Magnoliopsida – Dicotyledons
Subclass: Rosidae
Order: Fabales
Family: Fabaceae – Pea family
Genus: Lupinus L. – lupine
Species: Lupinus sparsiflorus Benth. – Coulter's lupine

More About This Plant

Arizona County Distribution Map