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Seashore lupine

Lupinus littoralis

Also called Chinook Licorice

Seashore lupine
Photo: Gordon Leppig & Andrea J. Pickart, Public domain

Seashore lupine is a low, mat-forming perennial of sandy coastal dunes from British Columbia to northern California, with silvery hairy leaves and purple flower spikes. It is grown mainly for coastal and dune restoration and sandy garden beds, and it needs full sun and very good drainage.

Family
Fabaceae (Pea & bean family)
Grows as
Perennial
Light
Full sun
Water
Water sparingly once established; let the soil dry out between waterings and avoid wet roots.
Soil
Sandy or gritty, very well-drained soil; tolerates poor, low-fertility ground.
Temperature
Hardy to roughly -15 °C; tolerates cool coastal climates and mild summers.
How easy
Moderate
Native range
W. Canada to NW. California
Climate
temperate

About

Lupinus littoralis is a species of lupine known by the common name seashore lupine. It is native to the coastline of western North America from British Columbia to northern California, where it grows in sandy habitat.

It is a low perennial herb or subshrub growing in a clump or mat no more than 30 centimetres (12 in) tall. Each palmate leaf is divided into 5 to 9 leaflets up to 3.5 centimetres (1.4 in) long. The herbage is coated in long, shaggy whitish or silvery hairs. The inflorescence is raceme of whorled flowers each around a centimeter long. The flower is purple in color with a white patch on its banner that fades pinkish. The fruit is a hairy legume pod 3 or 4 centimeters long containing up to 12 seeds. The bloom period is between the months of May to August. It is found between the elevations of 0 to 1245 feet (0 to 380 meters).

Other Lupinus plants

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 littoralis by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.

The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.

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.

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