Shortstem Lupine
Author: Ray Bowers

Description:
The shortstem lupine is a herbaceous annual plant that is from 4 to 11 cm ( 1.6 to 4.3 in ) tall. The leaves are palmately compound with seven leaflets radiating out from a common point on a red-brown stem. The narrow lance-like leaflets have dense hairs on the underside, and on the flower clusters and stems.

Geographic range:
Shortstem lupine is found from Oregon east to Colorado and south to Arizona and New Mexico.

Habitat:
Shortstem lupine grows on dry sandy slopes and plains from 916 to 2,134 m ( 3,000 to 7,000 ft ) in elevation.

Reproduction and Development:
Shortstem lupine is a monoecious plant that blooms from April through July. The light blue to violet flowers are on a stalk that grows from the base of the leaf stalks. The flower is irregularly shaped with five petals. One large broad upper petal, the banner petal, is violet with a white spot, two similarly shaped violet side petals called wing petals, and two joined violet lower petals shaped like a canoe keel. There are ten variable shaped stamens. The fruit is two seeded round flat pod.

Other info:
The seeds of Lupinus contain chemicals that are harmful to grazing animals. The common name, lupine, comes from the Latin word meaning wolf, and it was thought that these plants rob the soil of fertility. Lupines as well as other legumes can live in poor soil because the roots contain bacteria that can take nitrogen from the air and convert it to nitrogen compounds that the lupines can use through a process of nitrogen fixation.

Taxonomy:

Kingdom: Plantae
Division: Magnoliophyta
Class: Magnoliopsida
Order: Rutales
Family: Fabaceae
Genus: Lupinus
Species: Lupinus brevicaulis

References:
Allred, Kelly W. 2000. A Field Guide to the Flora of the Jornada Plain. Las Cruces: NMSU Department of Animal and Range Science.

Dodge, Natt N. 1985. Flowers of the Southwest Deserts. Tucson , AZ: Southwest Parks and Monuments Association.

Kearney , Thomas H. and Robert H. Peebles. 1951. Arizona Flora. Berkeley , California: University of California Press.

Niehaus, Theodore F. 1984. A Field Guide to Southwestern and Texas Wildflowers. Boston : Houghton Mifflin Company.

Wooton, E.O. and Paul C. Standley. 1915. Flora of New Mexico . Contributions from the United States National Herbarium, Vol 19. Washington: Government Printing Office.

Related Terms: Magnoliophyta, Magnoliopsida