Lupinus pusillus (Low Lupine) - photos and description
Origin: Native.
General: Low growing annual, with a branching, semi-erect to decumbent grow habit. Stems pilose.
Flowers: Flowers purple-blue to almost white, in short dense racemes. Flower measured to 1.5 cm long, and racemes to 4 cm long.
Leaves: Leaves are alternate and opposite, palmate, comprised of up to 7 leaflets. Leaves measured at 8.5 cm long with petiole, and 5 cm in diameter. Leaflets measured at 3.5 cm long, and 0.5 cm wide (measured when flattened), the leaflets are elliptical in profile. Leaflets glabrous on top, pilose on the bottom.
Height: Height listed in Budd's Flora to 25 cm, we measured a plant at 12 cm tall and 35 cm wide.
Habitat: Sandy soil and sand dunes in southwest Saskatchewan.
Abundance: This plant is rare, ranked as an S3 (as of 2021) by the Saskatchewan Conservation Data Centre.
When and where photographed: Took the above photos July 11th, sand blow out, sandy prairie, about 100 km west of Regina, SK, and July 25th prairie in badlands, East Block Grasslands National Park, about 300 km south west of our home in Regina, SK.