avalon365's Identifications

Miniature Lupine (Lupinus bicolor) Native, annual Lupine growing in a grassy meadow. A low, fairly inconspicuous plant, often growing with and sometimes confused with immature Sky Lupine (Lupinus nanus). It is found in many plant communities throughout California. The flower clusters are smaller, and the white banner spot on the keel is taller than it is wide (the opposite of Sky Lupine), and wraps around less deeply. Flowers are whorled, with shorter pedicels toward the top. The keel is generally ciliate on the upper margin near the pointed tip. Peak bloom time: March-June.

Excellent Introduction to Lupine anatomy/I.D.
http://tchester.org/plants/analysis/lupinus/identification.html#characters

Calflora https://www.calflora.org/app/taxon?crn=5118

Jepson eFlora with botanical illustration: https://ucjeps.berkeley.edu/eflora/eflora_display.php?tid=31793

Plants of Monterey County: an Illustrated Field Key, 2nd edition, Matthews and Mitchell, 2015, pp. 164-165.

Flora of Fort Ord: Monterey County, California, David Styer, 2019, p. 114.

Monterey County Wildflowers, Trees & Ferns https://montereywildflowers.com/fabaceae-lupine-ann/

Monterey County Wildflowers: a Field Guide, Yeager and Mitchell, 2016, p. 50.

Oregon Flora https://oregonflora.org/taxa/index.php?taxon=6305

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Lupine (genus Lupinus) are in the Pea (Fabaceae) family. They are nitrogen fixers and they help sequester carbon in the soil. "The Pea family has 5-petaled flowers, consisting of a wide upper banner petal, two wing petals, plus two lower petals which are fused to form a boat-shaped keel. Many produce heads or spikes, consisting of multiple individual flowers (examples are lupines and clovers). The seed pod is generally a “legume”; a long, flattish pod, swollen by the seeds, and splitting lengthwise along both the top and bottom.
Most lupines have distinct clusters of flowers in spikes, sometimes short, sometimes quite tall. Leaves are typically palmately compound, with leaflets ranging from very narrow to broad. It is useful to note whether the flowers are in whorls around the stem. It can also be critical to look at the keel, to see the pattern of hairs. Some are ciliate on both the top and bottom of the keel; some have hairs only near the claw (base), others only near the tip." https://montereywildflowers.com/fabaceae-lupine-per/

Pictorial Guide to Some Characteristics Needed for Lupine Identification http://tchester.org/plants/analysis/lupinus/identification.html

Key to Lupinus: Jepson eFlora https://ucjeps.berkeley.edu/eflora/eflora_keys.php?key=9370

Jepson eFlora Filter Key for Lupinus in CCo (Monterey County) https://keybase.rbg.vic.gov.au/keys/show/3690?filter_id=55b17b2b4727a

INaturalist Project: Lupines of California https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/lupines-of-california

Lupine I.D. Tips and Links by INat @/yerbasanta :
1) Reveal and photograph the keel petal (hidden within the wings) to document the hairs (if any) on the upper and lower surface along the entire length.
Keel image: https://tchester.org/plants/analysis/lupinus/pix/lupinus_formosus_g4_17_crop_70_label.jpg
2) Guide to documenting lupines in more detail (including calyx, banner spots, etc): https://tchester.org/plants/analysis/lupinus/identification.html#fig_1_caption