Tongass National Forest

Tongass Home » Districts & Offices » Petersburg Ranger District » Tongass Journals

Lupine

This is the time of year when Southeast Alaska is vibrant with blooms from flowers of all shapes, sizes, and colors.  Everyone has his or her favorite; this time of year mine is the lupine.  Others may call it sundial, Quaker’s bonnet, Nootka lupine, or arctic lupine. The Lupine ranges from the arctic to California.  It grows in a variety of sizes and colors.  Lupines range in height from one to five feet.  Flowers can be blue, purple, yellow, white or a combination of two of these colors.  Flowers grow grouped on a central spike.    The leaves are palmate which means they have three or more veins, leaflets, or lobes radiating from one point, like a palm leaf.

The lupine is one member of the pea family that you should never eat.  Lupine seeds grow in pods like pea pods that may be hairy on the underside or both the top and underside of the pod. Although they look like something you could include in your picnic salad, some varieties of lupines are poisonous because they can concentrate toxic alkaloids.  These alkaloids can severely inflame the stomach and intestines.  Grazing animals like cows, sheep, and goats have been poisoned by lupines.  The poisoned animals exhibit nervousness, labored breathing, frothing at the mouth, and convulsions.  Lupine is a close relative of the locoweed.  Not all the varieties are poisonous but it is better to use these fragrant flowers in a potpourri than a salad.

Lupines grow in meadows, alpine areas, gravel bars, or where soil has been disturbed in areas like ditches or near receding glaciers.  The name lupine is derived from “lupus,” the Latin word for wolf, and may come from the mistaken idea that lupine is a wolfish flower that takes all the nutrients out of the soil.  This is far from the case.  Lupines are nitrogen fixers that greatly improve soil conditions.  They make it possible for other plants to grow in disturbed soil areas.

Lupines are also a very hardy plant.  Arctic lupine seeds were discovered in a frozen lemming burrow in 1967 that were estimated at 10,000 years old.  When planted the seeds germinated within 48 hours.  If they can do well frozen in the arctic for 10,000 years, lupine seeds can do well in your garden.  Plant the seeds in the fall and they should sprout the next spring. 

Lupine seeds have a long history.  The Navajo employed lupines as a remedy for sterility.  They believed that taking lupines before conception encouraged the birth of female children.  Pioneers fed small amounts of immature lupine pods to horses to make them more spirited.  If the horse was too fiery, they rubbed lupine seeds in their palms before grabbing the reins to control the horse.  In Rome, lupine seeds were once used as money in theatrical productions.  In Alaska, lupine roots are an important spring food source for brown bears.

So, the next time you see the lovely lupine, remember it is more than just a pretty sight.