LUPINE

February Flowers: Week #2
There are over 100 species of lupine native to California and 14 have been identified in the Conejo Valley.  Most of the Lupine that grows in the Conejo Valley is a annual.  That means it dies off and the seeds it produced during the season will produce new plants the following year.  These are usually 1-2 feet tall and grow in sunny rocky spots along trails. 

The Bush Lupine can also be found along the trails and is actually a pereneal.  This plant does not die each year and can grow up to 6-8 feet tall.  It's leaves and flowers look very similar to the annual lupine.  The only different is that it is taller and its stalks are usually a bit more thick. 

Lupine is very lush and beautiful in the spring.  It is a fantastic one to have in a backyard garden not only because it is lovely, but also because it attracts many polinators make a healthy garden ecosystem.  Rabbits do love this plant as well, so if you have any wild bunnies that visit your garden, they may devour this plant whole. 

Identifying a lupine plant is quite easy when you know what to look for.  If it's flowering, the long stalks of flowers are usually one big clue.  The second clue is the leaves.  Lupine leaves grow in bunches of 5 or 7 leaves per stem.  They are called a palmate because all of the leaves grow from the center of one stem and look a bit like a palm of a hand.   

Lupine can be blue, purple, pink, yellow, and sometimes even two colors.  These flowers grow in long stalks and typical bloom between March and May.

After a lupine flower is polinated, the color of the flower changes slightly.  This is thought to alert polinators that this flower has stopped producing nectar and it should go elsewhere.  This color changing super power also draws attention to other flowers that haven't been polinated. 

Lupines belong in the pea family and so it is not suprising that when the flowers get pollinated, they produce seed pods that resember pea pods.  Although they may look like a vegetable common to many dinner tables, these seeds are very toxic and are not edible.  Their only purpose is to grow beautiful plants year after year. 

Most lupine is found along our trails are small bushes that have no thorns and their delicate leaves are soft.  The Stinging Lupin does grow in parts of the Santa Monica Mountains.  It looks very much like other lupine but has long stiff yellowish hairs that grown on the stem and leaves.  These hairs sting the skin when touched.  Stinging Lupine is usualy found in places that was disturbed by wildfires. 

Many sources say that the lupines get thier name from Lupus, the Latin word for wolf, because they were thought to rob the soil of important nutients.  What is ironic is that lupine does quite the opposite.  It is a plant that replaces nitrogen undergrown which is very important for plants to grow. 

It is impossible to for me to recondmend spots to see lupine without bringing attention to the Lupine Trail.  Most of the lupine that grows along this trail can be found the western part of the loop. 

Although this one mile loop trail does provide a great viewing spot for lupine, there are many other that grow lupine as well.  Lupine likes bright, sunny, rocky places.  If the trail has few trees, more that likely, you will see this plant begin to sprout in the Spring.

For the complete printable map of the Doe Vientos Trail System:
https://cosf.org/files/maps/dos_vientos_trail_map.pdf

Valentine's Day is coming next week so we are making cards in our our house.  The lupine watercolor tutorials below would be a great resource if you are making cards. It would be a great resource if you just wanted to do something after reading the book Miss Rumphius.

A Google search for lupine provides even more ideas on lupine craft ideas.

As you notice flowers blooming along the trails, a great identification resource is the Native Plant Wild Flower Reference Sheet.  This free printable guide is arranged by color so it is very easy to find the flower you are looking for.  This is a resource that should be kept in an adventure backpack for sure. 

Each spring, our family uses this guide as a BINGO sheet.  With a dry-erase marker or stickers, you can mark off which flowers you see this spring.  How many do you think you will spot this year?  

Click on the picture above to download this flower guide or visit: 
http://www.conejo-openspace.org/assets/wildflower_id_guide_20170321.pdf