Mountain lupine (Lupinus monticola)

Description: Capable of nitrogen fixation, which fertilizes poor soils.

Habit: Erect and spreading hairy herbaceous perennial; generally more than 30cm tall.

Leaves: Lower petioles often longer than the leaflets; the upper often much shorter; leaflets 7-9, oblanceolate, 2-4 cm. long, silky and somewhat hairy on both sides.

Stems: Stems numerous from a branched woody caudex, 1-2 dm. high, grayish with short stiff hairs.

Flowers: Raceme 3-6 cm. long; pedicels, bracts and calyx silky-villous; upper calyx-lip 2-cleft, the lower entire. Corolla glabrous, 8-10 mm. long; broad dark blue in color while the keel is lighter and strongly curved. Ovary silky with 4-6 ovules.

Fruit and seeds: Seed pod, 2.5-4 cm long, 4-12 mm wide, hairy, green to dark purplish-mottled when mature, 1 locular, straight, contains 3-10 seeds.

Habitat: Native to North America. Grows well in moist to wet soils. Found in open habitats (streamside, wet meadows) and disturbed sites, at low to middle elevations.

Reproduction: By seed.

Similar species: Other species of Lupine (Lupinus L.).

Monitoring and rapid response: Cutting, mowing or digging for small infestations; effectively controlled by any of the several readily available general use herbicides such as clopyralid or glyphosate.

Credits: The information provided in this factsheet was gathered from the New Manual of Botany of the Central Rocky Mountains (vascular Plants).

Individual species images that appear with a number in a black box are courtesy of the Bugwood.org network (http://www.invasive.org). Individual photo author credits may not be included due to the small display size of the images and subsequent difficulty of reading the provided text. All other images appear courtesy of Google (http://images.google.com).

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