''Lupinus flavoculatus'' is a species of lupine known by the common name yelloweyes, or yellow-eyed lupine.

Distribution and habitat

It is

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found elsew ...

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

and

Nevada Nevada ( ; ) is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, Western region of the United States. It is bordered by Oregon to the northwest, Idaho to the northeast, California to the west, Arizona to the southeast, and Utah to the east. N ...

, in mountains and plateaus of the

Mojave Desert The Mojave Desert ( ; mov, Hayikwiir Mat'aar; es, Desierto de Mojave) is a desert in the rain shadow of the Sierra Nevada mountains in the Southwestern United States. It is named for the indigenous Mojave people. It is located primarily in ...

, and in the

Inyo Mountains The Inyo Mountains are a short mountain range east of the Sierra Nevada in eastern California in the United States. The range separates the Owens Valley to the west from Saline Valley to the east, extending for approximately south-southeast fro ...

and White Mountains. The plant grows in the

creosote bush scrub Creosote bush scrub is a North American desert vegetation type (or biome) of sparsely but evenly spaced desert plants dominated by creosote bush (''Larrea tridentata'') and its associates. Its visual characterization is of widely spaced shrubs that ...

and pinyon-juniper woodland habitats. It can be found in

Death Valley National Park Death Valley National Park is an American national park that straddles the California–Nevada border, east of the Sierra Nevada. The park boundaries include Death Valley, the northern section of Panamint Valley, the southern section of Eureka ...

Description

''Lupinus flavoculatus'' is a small, hairy annual herb growing up to about tall. Each palmate leaf is made up of 7 to 9 leaflets 1 or 2 centimeters long. 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 ...

is a small, dense spiral of

flower A flower, sometimes known as a bloom or blossom, is the reproductive structure found in flowering plants (plants of the division Angiospermae). The biological function of a flower is to facilitate reproduction, usually by providing a mechani ...

s each roughly a centimeter long. The flower is bright to deep blue with a yellowish spot on its banner. The fruit is a somewhat oval-shaped 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 no more than a centimeter long. It contains one or two wrinkled

seed A seed is an embryonic plant enclosed in a protective outer covering, along with a food reserve. The formation of the seed is a part of the process of reproduction in seed plants, the spermatophytes, including the gymnosperm and angiospe ...

References

External links

Calflora Database: ''Lupinus flavoculatus'' (Yellow eyed lupine, Yelloweyes)Jepson eFlora treatment of ''Lupinus flavoculatus''UC CalPhotos gallery for ''Lupinus flavoculatus''
flavoculatus Flora of the California desert regions Flora of Nevada Flora of the Great Basin Natural history of the Mojave Desert Endemic flora of the United States Death Valley National Park Inyo Mountains White Mountains (California) Taxa named by Amos Arthur Heller Flora without expected TNC conservation status {{Lupinus-stub