''Lupinus argenteus'' is a species of

lupin ''Lupinus'', commonly known as lupin, lupine, or regionally bluebonnet etc., is a genus of plants in the legume family Fabaceae. The genus includes over 199 species, with centers of diversity in North and South America. Smaller centers occur ...

e known by the common name silvery lupine. It is native to much of western North America from the southwestern Canadian provinces to the southwestern and midwestern United States, where it grows in several types of habitat, including

sagebrush Sagebrush is the common name of several woody and herbaceous species of plants in the genus ''Artemisia''. The best known sagebrush is the shrub ''Artemisia tridentata''. Sagebrushes are native to the North American west. Following is an alph ...

, grassland, and forests. This is a perennial herb growing erect to heights anywhere between and . It is sometimes silvery-hairy in texture and sometimes nearly hairless. Each palmate leaf is made up of 5 to 9 leaflets each up to 6 centimetres long. They are narrow and linear in shape, under a centimetre wide. The

inflorescence An inflorescence is a group or cluster of flowers arranged on a stem that is composed of a main branch or a complicated arrangement of branches. Morphologically, it is the modified part of the shoot of seed plants where flowers are formed o ...

bears many flowers, sometimes arranged in whorls. The flower is to long and purple, blue, or whitish in color. The banner, or upper petal, of the flower may have a patch of white or yellow. The fruit is a hairy

legume A legume () is a plant in the family Fabaceae (or Leguminosae), or the fruit or seed of such a plant. When used as a dry grain, the seed is also called a pulse. Legumes are grown agriculturally, primarily for human consumption, for livestock f ...

pod up to 3 centimeters long containing several beanlike seeds. The plant is an important food source for butterflies. It also attracts birds and hummingbirds.

References

External links

Jepson Manual Treatment

Photo gallery

argenteus The ''argenteus'' ( ''argentei'', 'of silver') was a silver coin produced by the Roman Empire from the time of Diocletian's coinage reform in AD 294 to ca. AD 310. It was of similar weight and fineness to the denarius of the time of Nero. The c ...

Flora of North America {{Lupinus-stub