''Lupinus leucophyllus'' is a species of lupine known by the common name velvet lupine. It is native to western North America, where it grows in many types of mountain, prairie, and plateau habitat. It is a robust, branching, erect perennial herb growing up to tall. Each palmate leaf is divided into 7 to 11 leaflets up to long. The herbage is coated in white woolly fibers and stiff hairs. 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 dense

raceme A raceme ( or ) or racemoid is an unbranched, indeterminate type of inflorescence bearing flowers having short floral stalks along the shoots that bear the flowers. The oldest flowers grow close to the base and new flowers are produced as the s ...

of many

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 around a centimeter long. The flower is purple in color, fading brown, the patch on the banner petal yellow or brownish. The pointed

sepal A sepal () is a part of the flower of angiosperms (flowering plants). Usually green, sepals typically function as protection for the flower in bud, and often as support for the petals when in bloom., p. 106 The term ''sepalum'' was coined b ...

s and the back of the banner are hairy to woolly in texture. This is one of several poisonous lupines that are dangerous to grazing livestock. The plant contains toxic

alkaloid Alkaloids are a class of basic, naturally occurring organic compounds that contain at least one nitrogen atom. This group also includes some related compounds with neutral and even weakly acidic properties. Some synthetic compounds of similar ...

s including lupinine and the

teratogenic Teratology is the study of abnormalities of physiological development in organisms during their life span. It is a sub-discipline in medical genetics which focuses on the classification of congenital abnormalities in dysmorphology. The related t ...

anagyrine.Lee, S. T., et al. (2007). Alkaloid profiles, concentration, and pools in Velvet Lupine (''Lupinus leucophyllus'') over the growing season. ''Journal of Chemical Ecology'' 33:75-84. Lupinus_leucophyllus_9591

References

External links

Jepson Manual TreatmentPhoto galleryTurner Photographics
leucophyllus Flora of the Western United States Flora of British Columbia Flora without expected TNC conservation status {{Lupinus-stub