''Lupinus sericeus'' is a species of flowering plant in the
known by the common name silky lupine or Pursh's silky lupine. It is native to western North America from
British Columbia
British Columbia (commonly abbreviated as BC) is the westernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada, situated between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. It has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that include ...
to
Arizona
Arizona ( ; nv, Hoozdo Hahoodzo ; ood, Alĭ ṣonak ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southwestern United States. It is the list of U.S. states and territories by area, 6th largest and the list of U.S. states and territories by population, 14 ...
and east to
Alberta
Alberta ( ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is part of Western Canada and is one of the three prairie provinces. Alberta is bordered by British Columbia to the west, Saskatchewan to the east, the Northwest Ter ...
and
Colorado
Colorado (, other variants) is a state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It encompasses most of the Southern Rocky Mountains, as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the wes ...
.
[
This perennial herb produces erect stems from a woody ]caudex
A caudex (plural: caudices) of a plant is a Plant stem, stem, but the term is also used to mean a rootstock and particularly a basal stem structure from which new growth arises.pages 456 and 695
In the strict sense of the term, meaning a stem, " ...
and deep root system. The stems reach up to tall and may branch or not. They are coated in silvery or reddish hairs. The leaves have up to 9 lance-shaped leaflets each up to in length. They are coated in silky 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 ...
is a 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 sh ...
of many flowers, usually in shades of purple or blue, but sometimes white or yellowish. The back side of the banner petal is hairy. 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 fo ...
pod up to long containing up to 7 seeds.[Matthews, Robin F. (1993]
''Lupinus sericeus''.
In: Fire Effects Information System, nline U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station, Fire Sciences Laboratory (Producer). Retrieved 11-29-2011.[''Lupinus sericeus''.]
Washington Burke Museum. Retrieved 11-29-2011.
This plant grows in many types of habitat, including forests, woodlands, chaparral
Chaparral ( ) is a shrubland plant community and geographical feature found primarily in the U.S. state of California, in southern Oregon, and in the northern portion of the Baja California Peninsula in Mexico. It is shaped by a Mediterrane ...
, shrubsteppe, sagebrush, and grassland
A grassland is an area where the vegetation is dominated by grasses (Poaceae). However, sedge (Cyperaceae) and rush ( Juncaceae) can also be found along with variable proportions of legumes, like clover, and other herbs. Grasslands occur natur ...
s. It often grows on dry, rocky slopes, and does best in open sites without shade. It can be found at low and high elevation
The elevation of a geographic location is its height above or below a fixed reference point, most commonly a reference geoid, a mathematical model of the Earth's sea level as an equipotential gravitational surface (see Geodetic datum § ...
s, up to or more. It can often be found in recently burned sites. Plants associated with it include Gambel oak
''Quercus gambelii'', with the common name Gambel oak, is a deciduous small tree or large shrub that is widespread in the foothills and lower mountains of western North America. It is also regionally called scrub oak, oak brush, and white oak. ...
(''Quercus gambelii''), common snowberry
''Symphoricarpos albus'' is a species of flowering plant in the honeysuckle family known by the common name common snowberry. Native to North America, it is browsed by some animals and planted for ornamental and ecological purposes, but is poison ...
(''Symphoricarpos albus''), ninebark (''Physocarpus malvaceus''), serviceberry
''Amelanchier'' ( ), also known as shadbush, shadwood or shadblow, serviceberry or sarvisberry (or just sarvis), juneberry, saskatoon, sugarplum, wild-plum or chuckley pear,A Digital Flora of Newfoundland and Labrador Vascular Plants/ref> is a g ...
(''Amelanchier'' spp.), mountain-mahogany (''Cercocarpus'' spp.), arrowleaf balsamroot (''Balsamorhiza sagittata''), western yarrow (''Achillea millefolium''), heartleaf arnica
''Arnica cordifolia'' is a species of arnica in the sunflower family, known by the common name heartleaf arnica. It is native to western North America.
Description
This is a rhizomatous perennial herb producing one or more erect stems reaching ...
(''Arnica cordifolia''), bluebunch wheatgrass (''Pseudoroegneria spicata''), Sandberg bluegrass
''Poa secunda'' (variously known by the common names of Sandberg bluegrass, alkali bluegrass, big bluegrass, Canby's bluegrass, Nevada bluegrass, one-sided bluegrass, Pacific bluegrass, pine blugrass, slender bluegrass, wild bluegrass, and curly ...
(''Poa secunda''), fescue
''Festuca'' (fescue) is a genus of flowering plants belonging to the grass family Poaceae (subfamily Pooideae). They are evergreen or herbaceous perennial tufted grasses with a height range of and a cosmopolitan distribution, occurring on e ...
s (''Festuca idahoensis'' and ''F. scabrella''), prairie junegrass
''Koeleria macrantha'' is a species of grass known by the common name prairie Junegrass in North America and crested hair-grass in the UK. It is widespread across much of Eurasia and North America. It occurs in many habitat types, especially pra ...
(''Koeleria cristata''), and sedges
The Cyperaceae are a family of graminoid (grass-like), monocotyledonous flowering plants known as sedges. The family is large, with some 5,500 known species described in about 90 genera, the largest being the "true sedges" genus ''Carex'' wi ...
(''Carex'' spp.).[
Like many other ]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 ...
es, this species is very toxic to sheep, and less so to cattle and horses. It contains 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 relat ...
chemical compounds that may cause birth defect
A birth defect, also known as a congenital disorder, is an abnormal condition that is present at birth regardless of its cause. Birth defects may result in disabilities that may be physical, intellectual, or developmental. The disabilities c ...
s in a calf
Calf most often refers to:
* Calf (animal), the young of domestic cattle.
* Calf (leg), in humans (and other primates), the back portion of the lower leg
Calf or calves may also refer to:
Biology and animal byproducts
*Veal, meat from calves
...
if the plant is eaten by its mother during the early part of the gestation
Gestation is the period of development during the carrying of an embryo, and later fetus, inside viviparous animals (the embryo develops within the parent). It is typical for mammals, but also occurs for some non-mammals. Mammals during preg ...
period.[ Its toxicity is caused by a concentration of ]quinolizidine
Quinolizidine (norlupinane, octahydro-2''H''-quinolizine) is a nitrogen-containing heterocyclic compound. Some alkaloids (e.g. cytisine and sparteine) are derivatives of quinolizidine.
Quinolizidine alkaloids
Quinolizidine alkaloids, such as n ...
alkaloid
Alkaloids are a class of basic
BASIC (Beginners' All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code) is a family of general-purpose, high-level programming languages designed for ease of use. The original version was created by John G. Kemeny and Th ...
s. It does not appear to be toxic to wild animals such as white-tailed deer
The white-tailed deer (''Odocoileus virginianus''), also known as the whitetail or Virginia deer, is a medium-sized deer native to North America, Central America, and South America as far south as Peru and Bolivia. It has also been introduced t ...
, which often consume it. Bighorn sheep
The bighorn sheep (''Ovis canadensis'') is a species of sheep native to North America. It is named for its large horns. A pair of horns might weigh up to ; the sheep typically weigh up to . Recent genetic testing indicates three distinct subspe ...
feed on it in Montana and Columbia ground squirrels feed on the leaves and flowers. Many other small mammals and birds also eat parts of it.[
]
References
External links
The Nature Conservancy
{{Taxonbar, from=Q6704790
sericeus
Flora of the Western United States
Flora of Western Canada