Fun Facts of Blue Lupine

Wolf Flowers

• The name of the genus, Lupinus, comes from the Latin word for wolf, lupus. People used to believe the plant “wolfed up” soil nutrients, according to New Hampshire Public Television. Turns out, though, the legume actually adds nitrogen to the soil through the work of bacteria on its root nodes. Farmers use it as a cover crop to increase field nitrogen levels.

Butterfly Effect

• Blue lupine leaves are a necessary food source for the caterpillars of the endangered Karner blue butterfly. Named by author Vladimir Nabokov, this insect hatches from eggs laid the previous year on the host plants. After their springtime emergence, they turn into short-lived butterflies that deposit eggs on blue lupines to produce the second generation of the season, according to The Nature Conservancy. These summertime butterflies are the ones that lay the overwintering eggs. To help the Karner blues recover, conservationists are restoring blue lupine habitats.

Flying Seeds

• Blue lupine seeds launch from pods with explosive force. In fact, Northwest Ohio Nature reports that this phenomenon is audible to someone standing in a field as the seeds dry. This happens because the hairy pods curl as they desiccate, creating tension that leads to the expulsion. As many as 20 seeds – which can scatter a few feet – develop in 2-inch-long pods similar to those on soybean plants. The seeds ripen in the middle of summer.

Sailing Lore

• Lore has it, sailors navigated by sighting blue lupine-covered dunes along the Florida coast, according to local resorts such as Adagio Gulf Rentals. Blue Mountain Beach – with its relatively high elevation – supposedly got its name from sailors who saw large, white sand dunes covered with the flowers and thought the formations resembled a blue mountain. Blue lupines’ nitrogen fixing helps them grow in poor, sandy soil.