LUPINUS ALBUS

Family and Genus:- See- LEGUMINOSAE

Common Names:- White lupin

Homotypic Synonyms:- None

Meaning:- Lupinus. The ancient Latin name for the white lupin.

Albus (L) Bright, dead-white.

General description:- Sparsely patent-pilose annual.

Stems:-

1) Erect, generally 15-50 cm.

Leaves:-

1) Long-petiolate, digitate. mucronulate. subglabrous above, sparsely villous

beneath.

2) Lower leaflets, 25-35 x 14-18 mm, obovate.

3) Upper, 40-50 x 10-15 mm cuneate.

4) Stipules, setaceous.

Flower:-

1) Alternate or sometimes indistinctly whorled, in terminal racemes, 4-10 cm.

2) Calyx, 2-lipped, densely pilose,

a) upper lip shallowly bidentate.

3) Corolla, 12-16 mm, pale blue,

a) keel, pale blue at the apex, almost equalling the wings.

4) Stamens, monadelphous.

Fruit:-

1) Legume, 80-100 x 17-20 mm, becoming longitudinally rugulose, shortly-villous,

glabrescent, yellow.

2) Seeds, 12-14 mm, orbicular-quadrangular, compressed or depressed, smooth

and dull, light yellow, unspotted.

Key features:-

1) Seeds, 12-14 mm, dull.

2) Upper lip of the calyx shallowly bidentate.

Click here for a glossary of terms used.

Habitat:- Dry open shrubby vegetation, mixed scrub, olive groves, roadsides. 0-900

Distribution:- From Crete and Yugoslavia eastwards, but widely cultivated in the

W. Mediterranean. Limited distribution across Crete

Flowering time:- Late Mar to early May.

Photos by:- Steve Lenton