We hope you all had a good Independence Day celebration! It’s another Flower Friday and we’ve got one that we have, perhaps surprisingly, never featured before!
Lupinus, more commonly known as lupine, is among our favorites in the northern perennial world. Although many pronounce it like “loo-pine” and everyone will know what you’re talking about if you call it that, the correct pronunciation for the flower is “loo-pen.”
The etymology of the name lupine began in the 14th century and is based on the latin word “lupinus,” meaning wolf-like. Historically, this association was made because it was believed the plant was dangerous to sheep and other grazing animals. This danger may have been due to the plant’s proclivity to be colonized by a fungus called diaporthe toxica, which produces a mycotoxin reaction called lupinosis. This toxicity can cause liver failure in grazing animals.
Lupine is quite unique among our flowers in that it’s technically legume, hailing from the Fabaceae family of plants. There are over 200 known species of lupine, with the primary native populations existing in north and south America. There are some known lupine species clusters that thrive in northern Africa and the Mediterranean as well. Lupine can perennialize in zones 3 through 7 and it’s also an efficient self-seeder. Several species of lupine are native to Alaska.
Lupine have a tendency to grow tall, often towering several feet above the ground. The flowers produce in a spiked whorl pattern, eventually morphing into large pods which contain the seeds for future generations. This pod-producing behavior is perhaps expected, given its legume based heritage.
Like with many legumes, lupine function as a nitrogen fixer for the soil which occurs through a process called rhizobium-root nodule symbiosis. This can allow the plant to correct nutrient barren soils, acting as a pioneer plant for other species that need higher levels of nutrition. It is believed lupine was used for this purpose as far back as Egyptian and pre-Incan cultures to improve soil fertility. However, some regard lupine as invasive, so its use for this purpose is somewhat kept in check in modern times.
The modern agricultural value of lupine is a bit sorted. Many species produce very bitter alkaloids, with some species producing toxic alkaloids, both of which are generally unfit for human consumption. That said, several low-alkaloid species are used to produce animal feed currently. Though the demand for lupine as human based food is rather small today, some believe it could rival soybeans. Lupine produces a protein similar to soybeans, but with less fat, and it also provide several amino acids and antioxidants as well. Given the potential for toxicity, though, it’s one of those plants that requires deep knowledge to harvest for human or animal consumption.
Despite this modern outlook on lupine, the plant has been used as a food source for thousands of years. The common desired product are the seeds of the plant, harvested from the pods after the plant reaches maturity. Most often, the seeds were washed in running water to remove the bitter alkaloids, which were then cooked or toasted to make them more palatable. It can also prepared in brined or fermented solutions. The use of lupine as a food source spans Mesopotamian times to even modern Native American cultures. Lupine sees moderate popularity in places like Portugal, Spain, Brazil and Egypt.
Medicinally speaking, there is somewhat recent precedent for using lupine leaves in a cold-tea concoction. Native Americans used this lupine tea to treat nausea, urination issues and also internal hemorrhaging. Prior to this, some cultures used lupine as a diuretic, to stimulate blood flow and to treat parasitic infection. Modern pharmaceuticals have also looked at lupine with some value for its ability to act as an anti-hypertensive and the ability to lower cholesterol.
We truly enjoy our lupine and are working towards increasing their numbers. We are actively using them to naturally reduce dandelion populations and they are quite effective at that. They have a tendency to shade out early weeds and will also increase soil fertility, which encourages the development of other species. Though some people believe them to be invasive, we’d rather gaze upon lupine than a thousand dandelions!
