Lupinus benthamii

Spider lupine, Spider Lupine

Family: Fabaceae · Type: annual · Native

Spider lupine is a California native annual found in the Sierra Nevada Foothills, Tehachapi area, deltaic Great Valley, and southern Coast Ranges on rocky slopes and open areas at elevations below 1,500 meters. Flowering from March to May, this plant produces bright blue flowers with a white banner spot that turns magenta with age, arranged in spiraled clusters 6 to 30 centimeters long. Growing 20 to 70 centimeters tall with short-appressed and long-spreading hairs, it has an upright, branching form. Its leaves have 7 to 10 narrow linear leaflets, each 20 to 50 millimeters long and smooth on the upper surface. The fruit is a coarsely hairy pod approximately 3 centimeters long.

Habitat: Locally common. Rocky slopes, open areas

Bloom period: Mar-May

Elevation: < 1500 m

Bioregions: SNF, Teh, deltaic GV, SCoRO.

California counties: Placer, Kern, Tulare, Monterey, Los Angeles, Calaveras, Inyo, El Dorado, Yuba, Fresno, Santa Barbara, Madera, Sacramento, Amador, Sutter, Nevada, Solano, Mariposa, San Luis Obispo, San Joaquin, Tuolumne, Stanislaus, Contra Costa, Yolo, Merced, San Bernardino, Ventura, San Diego

Data from The California Species Project — 14,000+ California species with verified data from CNPS, CDFW, USFWS, Jepson eFlora, Cal-IPC, and more.