Duration: Annual

Nativity: Native

Lifeform: Forb/Herb

General: Erect annual 5-30 cm tall with few to many branches from base and at higher levels; herbage is densely villous with spreading hairs.

Leaves: Petioles exceed leaflets, slender, lower ones 4-8 cm long, stipules lance-linear, 5-9 mm long; leaflets 5-8 oblanceolate, obtuse to rounded at apex, 3-6 mm wide, 1-2 cm long, deep green through pubescence.

Flowers: Racemes erect, 3-10 cm long or sometimes of only 2-3 flowers and surpassed by leaves. Papilionoid flower with a densely villous calyx, shallow cup 1-2 mm deep, upper calyx lip cleft nearly or fully halfway to base, 4-5 mm long, lower one tridentate, petals 7-9 mm long, lilac or bluish, edged with deep purple, banner obovate, rounded or emarginated at apex, keel nonciliate, nearly straight.

Fruits: Pods 10-18 mm long, straight, densely villous, 2-4 seeded.

Ecology: Found on dry sandy soils below 5,000 ft (1524 m); flowers March-May.

Notes: Several varieties in and around the Sonoran Desert, worth collecting if uncertain.

Ethnobotany: No known uses.

Etymology: Lupinus comes from Latin for wolf, while concinnus means neat or elegant.

Synonyms: None

Editor: SBuckley, 2010