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Lupinus polyphyllus
Also called Big-leaved lupine, Garden lupin, Large-leaved lupine, Many-leaved lupine, Large Leaf Lupin, Washington Lupin, Garden Lupine
A hardy perennial lupine native to western North America, grown in gardens mainly as the parent of many colourful garden hybrids. It thrives in sun and light, well-drained soil and dislikes rich, heavy or clay soils.
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 and western Wyoming, and south to Utah and California. It commonly grows along streams and creeks, preferring moist habitats.
It is commonly used in gardens for its attractiveness to bees, as well as its ability to improve poor sandy soils with its nitrogen fixing ability and flowers. Numerous cultivars have been selected for differing flower colour, including red, pink, white, blue, and multicoloured with different colours on different petals. Often hybrids between L. polyphyllus and L. arboreus are used, and sold under hybrid names such as Rainbow Lupins, Lupin Tutti Fruitti, and Band of Nobles (mixed), Chandelier (yellow), My Castle (red), Noble Maiden (white), The Chatelaine (pink), and The Governor (blue). They are very hardy plants, surviving extreme temperatures and withstanding frost to at least −25 °C (−13 °F). The wild varieties can easily become invasive and hard to dispose of unless kept in check on a regular basis. Growing lupins in pots can help prevent them from growing invasively in the ground. They need a reasonable level of sun to survive, and do best in light soils, suffering in heavy and clay types. Once fully established they are extremely resilient and may be divided.
This lupine may represent a significant threat to the survival of the endangered Karner blue butterfly, due to its ease of hybridization with the Karner's food plant, Lupinus perennis, the wild perennial lupine. Some sources argue that commercial lupine seeds are already questionable for the Karner due to hybridization. Additionally, incompatible lupines continue to be introduced by humans into places where the Karner lives or once lived.
Silver lupine · White Lupin · Lupinus anatolicus · Yellow bush lupine · Miniature lupine · European yellow lupine · Chick Lupine · Tarwi · Nootka lupine · Texas bluebonnet · Hollowleaf annual lupine · Texas lupine
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Lupinus polyphyllus 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.
