Lupinus lepidus

Pacific lupine, Dwarf Lupine

Family: Fabaceae · Type: perennial · Native

Pacific lupine is a California native perennial found in low-elevation habitats of western coastal and mountain regions. Flowering from April to June, this plant produces pink, violet, or blue flowers in compact clusters 2 to 30 centimeters long. Growing as a low-spreading herb less than 60 centimeters tall with prostrate to slightly erect stems, it forms matted clumps with soft hairy appearance. Its leaves have 5 to 8 leaflets, each 5 to 40 millimeters long, covered in soft hairs and emerging from slender petioles 2 to 10 centimeters long. The fruit is a hairy pod 9 to 14 millimeters long containing 2 to 4 mottled tan or green to brown seeds.

California counties: Alpine, Mono, El Dorado, Plumas, Del Norte, San Bernardino, Tuolumne, Mariposa, Modoc, Madera, Placer, Humboldt, Siskiyou, Calaveras, Lassen, Nevada

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