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Lupinus caudatus
Also called Kellogg's Spurred Lupine
Lupinus caudatus is a widespread species of wildflower in genus Lupinus from western North America known by the common names tailcup lupin and spurred lupin. It is distinctive for the short spur on its purple-blue flowers, for which it is named. Because of its wide distribution and toxicity it commonly causes poisonings of susceptible livestock such as horses, cattle, and sheep, though it is eaten without harm by wild herbivores like deer and elk. It is generally found from the Coastal Ranges and Sierra Nevada Mountains in the west to the Rocky Mountains in the east.
Lupinus caudatus, like many of its relatives in the genus Lupinus, is responsible for the congenital deformation of cattle calves called "crooked calf" by ranchers. This condition is now more formally known as "lupine induced arthrogryposis" and its symptoms include flexure of the front leg joints, twisting of the neck, curvature of the spinal column, and cleft palate. L. caudatus and Lupinus sericeus were the first two species identified as causing crooked calf. The toxin in L. caudatus that is responsible for the disease is the quinolizidine alkaloid anagyrine, though some other species contain a different teratogenic compound. It also can poison adult cattle when larger amounts are consumed, with symptoms including general weakness, muscular trembling, convulsions, and prostration.
Lupinus caudatus is found throughout the western United States from the Rocky Mountains to the Sierra Nevadas and Cascades from occurrences recorded in the PLANTS database. It also records it in the Texas panhandle, Oklahoma, Nebraska, and South Dakota. The Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) also has a record of the single undated preserved specimen from Alberta, Canada. GBIF also has numerous specimens records from Mexico under the synonymized name Lupinus lupinus collected from the states of Baja California, Baja California Sur, and Durango. POWO also records it growing in North Dakota, but lacks records of it growing in Washington State, Nebraska, South Dakota, Oklahoma, Texas, or any part of Mexico.
Drew's silky lupine · Fleshy lupine · Lupinus albert-smithianus · Sicklekeel lupine · Silver lupine · White Lupin · Lupinus alopecuroides · Lupinus amandus · Lupinus anatolicus · Anderson's lupine · Narrowflower lupine · Narrowleaf lupine
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Lupinus caudatus by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts are shared under the same licence.
Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.
