Sky lupine
The short lupine: an annual, ankle high, that turns a whole hillside blue for about three weeks in April.
In brief
Lupinus nanus, Fabaceae.
- Annual, roughly 10 to 40 cm
- Native to California
- Flowers March to May
- Fruit a small hairy pod
Where it grows
Open grassland, burns and disturbed slopes through the California foothills.
When it blooms
March to May. It is over quickly: the plant germinates with the rains, flowers, sets seed and dies inside a season.
Seed and fruit
A small hairy pod. The seed waits in the soil for the next wet winter, which is why a hillside can be solid blue one April and ordinary the next.
Here
Photographed carpeting the hillside at dusk on April 14, 2025. This is the low lupine, about ten centimeters of leaf with the flower spikes just above it, and it is what makes the Lupine Way trail worth the name.
One caution on the name: sky lupine and miniature lupine (Lupinus bicolor) are hard to separate and both are likely here. Flowers over about 10 mm long and clearly arranged in whorls are sky lupine; distinctly smaller ones are miniature lupine.
By Yggdrasil Springs
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