Lupinus covillei

Coville's shaggy lupine

Family: Fabaceae · Type: perennial · Native

Coville's shaggy lupine is a California native perennial found in the central Sierra Nevada Mountains in subalpine forests, rocky slopes, and moist meadow edges at elevations of 2,500 to 3,500 meters. Flowering from July to September, this plant produces light blue flowers with a distinctive yellow spot on the banner, clustered in open inflorescences 2 to 6 centimeters long. Growing 20 to 90 centimeters tall with erect stems covered in strigose to shaggy hairs longer than 1 millimeter, it has a distinctly hairy appearance. Its yellow-green leaves are composed of 4 to 9 leaflets, each 30 to 110 millimeters long and 5 to 11 millimeters wide, with lower leaf stalks 5 to 10 centimeters long. The fruit is a woolly pod 2.5 to 4 centimeters long, containing 4 to 6 beige and mottled dark seeds.

Habitat: Depressions, meadow edges, moist, rocky slopes, subalpine forests

Bloom period: Jul-Sep

Elevation: 2500-3500 m

Bioregions: c&amps SNH.

California counties: Mariposa, Tuolumne, Tulare, Fresno, Madera, Mono

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