Lupinus microcarpus var. microcarpus

Shaggy haired chick lupine

Family: Fabaceae · Type: annual · Native

Shaggy haired chick lupine is a California native annual found in the California Floristic Province, northern and western Mojave Desert in open or disturbed areas at elevations below 1,600 meters. Flowering from March to June, this plant produces pink to purple (occasionally yellow or white) flowers with distinctive shaggy-hairy bracts and calyxes. Growing with upright stems that range from 10 to 50 centimeters tall, it forms delicate branching clusters. Its leaves are compound with multiple leaflets, typical of the lupine family, arranged in a palmate pattern. The fruit develops in generally erect pods that spread on multiple sides of the plant's axis.

Habitat: Abundant. Open or disturbed areas, occasionally seeded on roadbanks

Bloom period: Mar-Jun

Elevation: < 1600 m

Bioregions: CA-FP, MP, w DMoj

California counties: San Luis Obispo, Kern, Ventura, Los Angeles, Orange, San Bernardino, Inyo, Santa Barbara, Riverside, Tulare, Glenn, Monterey, Contra Costa, Fresno, San Benito, Placer, Amador, Colusa, San Diego, Yolo, El Dorado, Alameda, Modoc, Santa Clara, Sonoma, San Mateo, San Joaquin, Lassen, Butte, Stanislaus, Shasta, Tehama, Merced, Trinity, Siskiyou, Napa, Marin, San Francisco, Lake, Sutter, Santa Cruz, Solano, Sacramento, Mariposa

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