Lupinus formosus

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Lupinus formosus
Lupinus formosus.jpg
Scientific classification Red Pencil Icon.png
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Eudicots
Clade: Rosids
Order: Fabales
Family: Fabaceae
Genus: Lupinus
Species:
L. formosus
Binomial name
Lupinus formosus

Lupinus formosus, the summer lupine or western lupine, is a species of flowering plant in the legume family, Fabaceae. It is native to California and Oregon in the United States.

Lupinus formosus has been cited as a poisonous plant. Although it is not endangered it faces eradication in some areas at the hands of cattle farmers as it has been implicated in crooked calf disease. This lupine, along with five others, is poisonous from the time it starts growth in the spring until the seed pods shatter in late summer or early fall. However, the younger the plant the more toxic it is. [1]

Summer lupine is one of three piperidine alkaloid containing plants that have poisonous effects on livestock. It, along with poison hemlock (Conium maculatum) and tree tobacco (Nicotiana glauca), induced "multiple congenital contractures (MCC) and palatoschisis in goat kids when their dams were gavaged with the plant during gestation." The skeletal abnormalities included fixed extension of the carpal, tarsal and fetlock joints, scoliosis, lordosis, torticollis and rib cage problems. The clinical signs of toxicity in sheep, cattle and pigs included, ataxia, incoordination, muscular weakness, prostration and death. [2]

It inhabits areas of dry slopes beneath pine trees, clay soils, grasslands, coniferous forests, and areas in the San Jacinto, Santa Rosa and San Gabriel Mountains. Its distribution extends across the state of California except for the eastern deserts and the plateaus east of the Sierra Nevada. This lupine blooms from April to August. [3] It is one of the foodplants of the endangered mission blue butterfly.

There are two varieties. Lupinus formosus var. robustus is confined to the Sierra Nevada and the Southern Coast Ranges of California, while var formosus is more widespread.

It is a larval host to the Acmon blue, arrowhead blue, Melissa blue, silvery blue, and sooty hairstreak. [4]


Related Research Articles

<i>Nicotiana</i> Genus of flowering plants in the nightshade family Solanaceae

Nicotiana is a genus of herbaceous plants and shrubs in the family Solanaceae, that is indigenous to the Americas, Australia, south west Africa and the South Pacific. Various Nicotiana species, commonly referred to as tobacco plants, are cultivated as ornamental garden plants. N. tabacum is grown worldwide for production of tobacco leaf for cigarettes and other tobacco products.

<i>Lupinus polyphyllus</i> Species of legume

Lupinus polyphyllus, the large-leaved lupine, big-leaved lupine, many-leaved lupine, blue-pod lupine, or, primarily in cultivation, garden lupin, is a species of lupine (lupin) native to western North America from southern Alaska and British Columbia east to Quebec, and western Wyoming, and south to Utah and California. It commonly grows along streams and creeks, preferring moist habitats.

<i>Lupinus</i> Genus of leguminous plants

Lupinus, commonly known as lupin, lupine, or regionally bluebonnet etc., is a genus of flowering plants in the legume family Fabaceae. The genus includes over 199 species, with centers of diversity in North and South America. Smaller centers occur in North Africa and the Mediterranean. They are widely cultivated, both as a food source and as ornamental plants, although in the Nordic countries and New Zealand's South Island, introduced lupins are viewed as a severe environmental threat.

<i>Conium</i> Genus of flowering plants in the celery family Apiaceae

Conium is a genus of flowering plants in the family Apiaceae. As of December 2020, Plants of the World Online accepts six species.

Karner blue Endangered subspecies of butterfly in northeastern United States

The Karner blue is an endangered subspecies of small blue butterfly found in some Great Lakes states, small areas of New Jersey, the Capital District region of New York, and southern New Hampshire, where it is the official state butterfly. The butterfly, whose life cycle depends on the wild blue lupine flower, was classified as an endangered species in the United States in 1992.

<i>Lupinus nanus</i> Species of legume

Lupinus nanus, the sky lupine, field lupine, dwarf lupin, ocean-blue lupine or Douglas' annual lupine, is a species of lupine native to the western United States. It is found natively in California, Nevada, and on Steens Mountain in eastern Oregon. It tends to grow on slopes and in open or disturbed areas below 1300 meters.

Mission blue butterfly Subspecies of butterfly

The Mission blue is a blue or lycaenid butterfly subspecies native to the San Francisco Bay Area of the United States. The butterfly has been declared as endangered by the US federal government. It is a subspecies of Boisduval's blue.

<i>Lupinus perennis</i> Species of legume

Lupinus perennis is a flowering plant in the family Fabaceae. It is widespread in the eastern part of the USA and Minnesota, Canada, and on the coasts of the Arctic Ocean, where it grows in sandy areas such as dunes and savannas.

<i>Lupinus bicolor</i> Species of legume

Lupinus bicolor is a species of lupine known as the miniature lupine, Lindley's annual lupine, pigmy-leaved lupine, or bicolor lupine.

<i>Lupinus excubitus</i> Species of legume

Lupinus excubitus is a species of lupine known as the grape soda lupine. Its common name refers to its sweet scent, which is said to be very reminiscent of grape soda. This species and its variants are found in Southwestern United States, especially in California and Nevada, e.g., Death Valley and Joshua Tree National Parks, and northwestern Mexico.

<i>Eriogonum umbellatum</i> Species of wild buckwheat

Eriogonum umbellatum is a species of wild buckwheat known by the common name sulphurflower buckwheat, or simply sulphur flower. It is native to western North America from California to Colorado to central Canada, where it is abundant and found in many habitats. This is an extremely variable plant and hard to identify because individuals can look very different from one another. Also, there are a great many varieties. It may be a perennial herb forming a small clump with flowers to 10 centimeters tall, or a sprawling shrub approaching two meters high and wide. The leaves are usually woolly and low on the plant, and the flowers come in many colors from white to bright yellow to purple. Native American groups utilized parts of this plant for a number of medicinal uses.

<i>Sambucus racemosa</i> Species of plant

Sambucus racemosa is a species of elderberry known by the common names red elderberry and red-berried elder.

<i>Lupinus albifrons</i> Species of legume

Lupinus albifrons, silver lupine, white-leaf bush lupine, or evergreen lupine, is a species of lupine (lupin). It is native to California and Oregon, where it grows along the coast and in dry and open meadows, prairies and forest clearings. It is a member of several plant communities, including coastal sage scrub, chaparral, northern coastal scrub, foothill woodland, and yellow pine forest.

<i>Conium maculatum</i> Poisonous herbaceous plant in the carrot family

Conium maculatum, the hemlock, poison hemlock or wild hemlock, is a highly poisonous biennial herbaceous flowering plant in the carrot family Apiaceae, native to Europe and North Africa. A hardy plant capable of living in a variety of environments, hemlock is widely naturalized in locations outside its native range, such as parts of Australia, West Asia, and North and South America, to which it has been introduced. It is capable of spreading and thereby becoming an invasive weed.

<i>Lupinus benthamii</i> Species of legume

Lupinus benthamii is a species of lupine known by the common name spider lupine.

Lupinus elatus is a species of lupine known by the common name tall silky lupine. It is endemic to California, where it is known from the Transverse Ranges above Los Angeles, and possibly also from the southernmost slopes of the Sierra Nevada. Its habitat includes dry areas in the forests of the mountains. This is an erect perennial herb reaching a maximum height near 90 centimeters. Each palmate leaf is made up of 6 to 8 leaflets up to 8 centimeters long. The herbage is coated in silvery silky to woolly hairs. The inflorescence is a long raceme of flowers, each about a centimeter long and arranged in whorls. The flower is purple or blue with a pale yellow patch on its banner. It yields a legume pod 2 or 3 centimeters long. This is a host plant to the Southern California native butterfly subspecies known as the San Gabriel Mountains Arrowhead Blue.

<i>Lupinus latifolius</i> Species of legume

Lupinus latifolius is a species of lupine known by the common name broadleaf lupine. It is native to western North America from British Columbia to Baja California to New Mexico, where it is common and can be found in several types of habitat. There are several subtaxa, described as subspecies or varieties, some common and some rare. They vary in morphology. In general this plant is an erect perennial herb. It grows 30 centimeters to over two meters in height, in texture hairy to nearly hairless. Each palmate leaf is made up of several leaflets, those on larger plants up to 10 centimeters long. The inflorescence bears many flowers, sometimes in whorls. Each flower is one to two centimeters in length, purple to blue to white in color, the spot on its banner yellowish, pinkish, or white.

<i>Lupinus aridorum</i> Species of legume

Lupinus aridorum is a rare species of lupine known by the common name scrub lupine. It is endemic to Florida in the United States, where there were 10 known populations remaining in 2003. Fewer than 6000 individual plants were counted. It is threatened by the loss and degradation of its habitat. The scrub lupine is a federally listed endangered species of the United States.

<i>Lupinus lepidus</i> Species of legume

Lupinus lepidus, the Pacific lupine, prairie lupine or dwarf lupine is a perennial herbaceous plant in the pea family (Fabaceae) endemic to western North America. Many varieties have been described, several of which are considered separate species by some authorities.

References

  1. Lupine, Agricultural Research Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture
  2. Abstract (multiple authors) "Congenital skeletal malformations and cleft palate induced in goats by ingestion of Lupinus, Conium and Nicotiana species", USDA/ARS/Poisonous Plant Research Laboratory, Logan, UT
  3. Lupinus formosus, Calflora Database
  4. The Xerces Society (2016), Gardening for Butterflies: How You Can Attract and Protect Beautiful, Beneficial Insects, Timber Press.