Lupine

A blooming lupine with bluish-violet flowers.

NPS/ Kenneth Ingham

Lupine is part of the Fabaceae family, in the subfamily of Papilionoideae, along with peas, beans, peanuts, and other legumes. The name of the subfamily derives from the Latin word for butterfly and is given to these plants because of their butterfly shaped flowers. In lupine, these flowers grow together in tall spires of various colors. The eleven species on Parashant display various shades of color from purple to blue to yellow. Many lupine flowers are adorned with white spots on the petals that help guide hungry insects and hummingbirds in to drink the nectar. As the nectar dries up the spot becomes a magenta color and fills in with the rest of the petal to indicate the food is gone. This benefits the animals because they do not need to waste energy foraging among flowers that are no longer supplying nectar but it also benefits the flowers because it keeps the older, staler pollen out of circulation. This helps ensure that the healthiest plants propagate into future generations.

Lupines are important sources of nitrogen for the surrounding soil and plant life. Certain bacteria, known as Rhizobium, live in special nodules on the roots and stems of these plants. These bacteria are adept at obtaining unusable nitrogen from the air and converting it to a more useful form that plants need in order to grow. This is a process known as "nitrogen fixing" and is quite rare in nature. Nitrogen is an essential component to plant growth. Without sources of nitrogen, like those provided by lupine, the entire forest would look very different in comparison to what it looks like today.

 

The leaves of this lupine plant contain nine small leaflets that are covered with fine hairs that help protect the plant in the arid desert.

NPS/ Kenneth Ingham