Lupines are members of the genus Lupinus in the pea family. Many of them are native to the Yuba-Sutter area. Two of these are shrubs (having woody stems and living more than one year). Of the others, approximately are perennial forbs (having soft stems and living more than one year), while the other half are annuals (living only one year). All lupines are difficult to transplant, so it is usually easier to plant seeds than to try to buy the plants from nurseries.
Lupines are poisonous to people and most other mammals if eaten, so they should not be planted where pets or small children may eat them. The seedpods resemble small pea pods, so small children sometimes mistakenly assume the lupine seeds are edible.
Lupines are a larval host plant for the local orange sulfur and Acmon blue butterflies. California quail often eat lupine seeds.
Shrubs
Silver Bush Lupine
Silver bush lupine (Lupinus albifrons) in a garden in Marysville, with California golden poppies. Photo by queerbychoice. Silver bush lupine can be seen growing along Highway 70 in Plumas Lake. It is a three- to four-foot-tall by four- to five-foot-wide, purple-flowering shrub that is native to Yuba and Sutter Counties and typically grows at elevations below 6,500 feet. It is most often found in sandy or rocky areas in central oak woodland or yellow pine forest. Botanist Willis Linn Jepson collected silver bush lupine on the Sutter Buttes in 1891,1 and botanist Amos Arthur Heller collected it many more times there between 1905 and 1941.2
You can read more about it at the Theodore Payne Wiki and the Las Pilitas Nursery website. You can see pictures of it at CalPhotos, Flickr, and Picasa. You can find out where to buy it at the California Native Plant Link Exchange.
Many-Colored Lupine
Many-colored lupine is a purple- and white-flowering shrub that is native to Sutter County and typically grows at elevations below 1,500 feet.
You can see pictures of it at CalPhotos, Flickr, and Picasa. You can find out where to buy it at the California Native Plant Link Exchange.
Perennial Forbs
Russell Lupine
Russell lupine (also called meadow lupine) is a four-foot-tall by four-foot-wide, purple-flowering, deciduous perennial that is native to Yuba County and typically grows at elevations below 10,000 feet. It is found in riparian forest.
You can read more about it at the Theodore Payne Wiki and the Las Pilitas Nursery website. You can see pictures of it at CalPhotos, Flickr, and Picasa. You can find out where to buy it at the California Native Plant Link Exchange.
Broadleaf Lupine
Broadleaf lupine is a four- to five-foot-tall, purple-flowering perennial that is native to Yuba County and typically grows at elevations below 11,500 feet. It is found in riparian forest. It tolerates full shade.
You can read more about it at the Theodore Payne Wiki, the Las Pilitas Nursery website, and USDA Conservation Plant Characteristics. You can see pictures of it at CalPhotos, Flickr, and Picasa. You can find out where to buy it at the California Native Plant Link Exchange.
Quincy Lupine
Quincy lupine is a yellow-flowering perennial that is native to Yuba County. It is found in yellow pine forest. It is listed as rare by the California Native Plant Society.
You can see pictures of it at CalPhotos, Flickr, and Picasa. You can find out where to buy it at the California Native Plant Link Exchange.
Sicklekeel Lupine
Sicklekeel lupine is a white- or blue-flowering perennial that is native to Yuba County and typically grows at elevations between 2,000 and 8,500 feet. It is most often found on slopes in yellow pine forest. It prefers full sun.
You can read more about it at USDA Conservation Plant Characteristics. You can see pictures of it at CalPhotos, Flickr, and Picasa. You can find out where to buy it at the California Native Plant Link Exchange.
Sierra Lupine
Sierra lupine is a purple-flowering perennial that is native to Yuba County and typically grows at elevations between 2,000 and 8,000 feet. It is most often found on slopes in yellow pine forest.
You can see pictures of it at CalPhotos, Flickr, and Picasa. You can find out where to buy it at the California Native Plant Link Exchange.
Pacific Lupine
Pacific lupine is a purple-flowering perennial that is native to Yuba County and typically grows at elevations between 4,000 and 13,000 feet.
You can see pictures of it at CalPhotos, Flickr, and Picasa. You can find out where to buy it at the California Native Plant Link Exchange.
Annuals
Miniature Lupine
Miniature lupine (Lupinus bicolor) in a garden in Marysville. Photo by queerbychoice. Miniature lupine can be seen every spring in vast swathes on the Levees surrounding Marysville. It is a one-foot-tall, purple-flowering annual or occasionally perennial that is native to Yuba and Sutter Counties and typically grows at elevations below 8,500 feet. It is found in central oak woodland, valley grassland, or yellow pine forest. It prefers full sun. It looks similar to sky lupine but has fewer flowers and a top petal that is longer than it is wide.3 Botanist Willis Linn Jepson collected miniature lupine on the Sutter Buttes in 1891,4 and botanist Amos Arthur Heller collected it in 1905 at what is now the intersection of Ramirez Street and East 13th Street in Marysville.5
You can read more about it at the Las Pilitas Nursery website and USDA Conservation Plant Characteristics. You can see pictures of it at CalPhotos, Flickr, and Picasa. You can find out where to buy it at the California Native Plant Link Exchange.
Arroyo Lupine
Arroyo lupine (Lupinus succulentus) on a levee in Marysville. Photo by queerbychoice. Arroyo lupine can be seen in occasional shaded spots on the Levees surrounding Marysville. It is a two- to three-foot tall, purple-flowering annual that is native to Yuba and Sutter Counties and typically grows at elevations below 2,000 feet. It is most often found on slopes in central oak woodland, valley grassland, or yellow pine forest.
You can read more about it at the Theodore Payne Wiki. You can see pictures of it at CalPhotos, Flickr, and Picasa. You can find out where to buy it at the California Native Plant Link Exchange.
Arroyo lupine (Lupinus succulentus) in a Marysville garden, with California golden poppies. Photo by queerbychoice.
Sky Lupine
Sky lupine (Lupinus nanus) on Table Mountain. Photo by queerbychoice. Sky lupine is a two-foot-tall, purple-flowering annual that is native to Yuba and Sutter Counties and typically grows at elevations below 3,500 feet. It is most often found on slopes in central oak woodland or valley grassland. It looks similar to miniature lupine but has more flowers and a top petal that is at least as wide as it is long.6 Botanist Amos Arthur Heller collected it in 1905 at what is now the intersection of Barrow Street and Palm Street in Sutter.7
You can read more about it at the Theodore Payne Wiki and the Las Pilitas Nursery website. You can see pictures of it at CalPhotos, Flickr, and Picasa. You can find out where to buy it at the California Native Plant Link Exchange.
Spider Lupine
Spider lupine can be seen on the gravelly beaches along the banks of the Yuba River in Marysville. It is a two-foot-tall, purple-flowering annual that is native to Yuba County and typically grows at elevations below 4,000 feet. It is found in central oak woodland or valley grassland.
You can read more about it at the Las Pilitas Nursery website. You can see pictures of it at CalPhotos, Flickr, and Picasa. You can find out where to buy it at the California Native Plant Link Exchange.
Chick Lupine
The pale yellow flower spikes of chick lupine (Lupinus microcarpus) mix with purple Chinese pagodas, bird's eye gilyflowers, yellowray goldfields, tidytips, woolly sunflower, and non-native scarlet mallow in a garden in Marysville. Photo by queerbychoice. Chick lupine is a white-, yellow-, or purple-flowering annual that is native to Yuba and Sutter Counties and typically grows at elevations below 5,000 feet. Botanist Willis Linn Jepson collected chick lupine in Sutter in 1891.8
You can see pictures of it at CalPhotos, Flickr, and Picasa. You can find out where to buy it at the California Native Plant Link Exchange.
Harlequin Lupine
Harlequin lupine is a pink- and yellow-flowering annual that is native to Yuba County and typically grows at elevations below 4,500 feet.
You can see pictures of it at CalPhotos, Flickr, and Picasa. You can find out where to buy it at the California Native Plant Link Exchange.
Mount Diablo Lupine
Mount Diablo lupine is an annual that is native to Yuba County and typically grows at elevations below 2,000 feet. It is most often found on slopes in central oak woodland or valley grassland.
You can see pictures of it at CalPhotos, Flickr, and Picasa.
Fleshy Lupine
Fleshy lupine is a purple-flowering annual that is native to Sutter County and typically grows at elevations below 2,500 feet. Botanist Willis Linn Jepson collected fleshy lupine in Yuba City in 1891, in the area now bounded by Forbes Avenue and Bridge Street to the north and south and by Plumas Street and Clark Avenue to the east and west,9 and botanist Amos Arthur Heller collected it in 1915 near Pass Road on the Sutter Buttes.10
You can see pictures of it at CalPhotos, Flickr, and Picasa.
Footnotes
1. Consortium of California Herbaria
2. Consortium of California Herbaria
3. Wildflowers of Nevada and Placer Counties by the California Native Plant Society Redbud Chapter. Sacramento: CNPS Press, 2007
4. Consortium of California Herbaria
5. Consortium of California Herbaria
6. Wildflowers of Nevada and Placer Counties by the California Native Plant Society Redbud Chapter. Sacramento: CNPS Press, 2007
7. Consortium of California Herbaria
8. Consortium of California Herbaria
9. Consortium of California Herbaria
10. Consortium of California Herbaria
