against any opposing object. The action of the poison is not cumu- 

 lative, and usually no ill effects obtain where the animals consume 

 only small amounts. 1 



Being handsome plants, many of the lupines are cultivated as 

 ornamentals ; a number of the western species are particularly popu- 

 lar for that purpose. Lupine, under the name bluebonnet, is the 

 State flower of Texas. Various species, of lupine, including L. aZbus 

 and L. trends, have been cultivated since ancient times in Italy, 

 Greece, Egypt, and generally throughout the Mediterranean region 

 as forage and soiling plants. Formerly the seeds were used as food 

 for the poor, being boiled to remove the bitter taste. This is the 

 same plant called the sad lupine (tristis lupinus) by the poet Virgil. 



The majority of lupines are perennial herbs, although many are 

 annuals and a relatively few species are shrubs. Lupine species 

 range in height from about 2y 2 inches to 10 feet. They are smooth 

 or hairy, usually branching, and have alternate, mostly long-stemmed 

 leaves without glands. The bracts (stipules) at the bases of the 

 leaf-stems are narrow. Typically the leaves of lupines are corn- 

 pound and divided into from 4 to 17 fingerlike leaflets. In a few 

 lupines, however, particularly of the Southeastern States, the leaves 

 are simple, being reduced to a solitary, mostly evergreen leaflet. In 

 several other species the leaves are cloverlike, with three leaflets 

 (trifoliolate). Lupine leaves have long been noted for their "sleep 

 movements", the leaflets folding up in various fashions, usually 

 during the middle of the day. The pealike flowers are, generally, 

 blue, bluish, or purplish; in some species, however, the flowers are 

 white, yellow, reddish, or of a mixture of colors. The flowers often 

 grow in circles around the upper stalk and are borne in usually long, 

 showy clusters. The floral cup (calyx) is two-lipped, the upper 

 "lip" two-lobed, the three lobes of the lower "lip" united. The sides 

 of the topmost petal are bent backward; the two lowest, conjoined 

 petals are curved inward and often fringed-hairy above. The 10 

 stamens are fused together into one group and their pollen-sacs 

 (anthers) are of two sorts: alternately large and small. The fruit 

 is a 2-valved, flattened, 2- to 12-seeded pod (legume). 



Because of their fingerlike leaves, without tendrils, and their char- 

 acteristically upright (never twining or vinelike) habit, lupines mav 

 always be readily distinguished from peavines (Lathymts spp.) and 

 vetches (Vicia spp.). Goldenpeas (Thernwpsis spp.) may be dis- 

 tinguished by their three-leafletted leaves with big leafy stipules, 

 their trailing rootstocks, usually brilliant yellow flowers, and sepa- 

 rated stamens. The conspicuous glands of the herbage, and often 

 the starchy tubers, in the "pomme-de-prairie" genus Psoralea im- 

 mediately set those plants apart from, lupines. True clovers (Tri- 

 foUwm, spp.) differ from lupines in the typically three-leafletted 

 leaves with toothed leaflets, the flowers massed in a dense, mostly 

 rounded head, and in the diminutive pods. 



1 Marsh, C. D., Clawson, A. B., and Marsh. H. LUPINES AS POISONOUS PLANTS. U S 

 Dept. Agr. Bull. 405, 45 pp., illus. 1916. 



Marsh, C. D. STOCK-POISONING PLANTS OF THE RANGE. U. S. Dept. Agr. Bull. 1245. 

 rev., 75 pp., illus. 1929. Supersedes Bull. 575. 



