Lupinus microcarpus

Chick lupine

Family: Fabaceae · Type: annual · Native

Chick lupine is a California native annual found in various bioregions in open grasslands and disturbed areas at low elevations. Flowering from March to June, this plant produces white to dark yellow, pink to dark rose, or lavender to purple flowers 8 to 18 millimeters long with distinctively ciliate wing petals. Growing 10 to 80 centimeters tall with a clearly hollow stem that is sparsely to densely hairy, it develops an intricate branching structure. Its compound leaves have 5 to 11 leaflets, typically 9, ranging from 10 to 50 millimeters long and 2 to 12 millimeters wide, with an upper surface that is glabrous. The fruit is an erect to spreading ovate pod 1 to 1.5 centimeters long, typically growing on one side of the flower cluster and covered in fine hairs.

California counties: Contra Costa, Los Angeles, Kern, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, Santa Barbara, Ventura, Modoc, Fresno, San Joaquin, San Luis Obispo, Monterey, Colusa, Merced, Siskiyou, Stanislaus, Glenn, Santa Clara, Tulare, San Diego, Trinity, Marin, Mendocino, Amador, Shasta, San Benito, Inyo, Yuba, Solano, Napa, Butte, Humboldt, Alameda, Tehama, Madera, Yolo, Sonoma, Calaveras, Lassen

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