Duration: Annual

Nativity: Native

Lifeform: Forb/Herb

General: Stout annual 20-100 cm tall, fleshy, sparsely hairy and considerably branched.

Leaves: Palmately compound, generally cauline, on petiole 6-15 cm, 7-9 leaflets, cuneate-obovate, 6-16 mm wide, 2-7 cm long, rounded, truncate, or slightly apiculate at apex, upper surface glabrous.

Flowers: Raceme 9-30 cm long, distinct whorls, peduncle 5-9 cm, deciduous linear bracts 3-5 mm long; pedicels 3-7 mm long, pubescent with short spreading hairs; calyx 4-7 mm, appressed-pubescent, upper lip lobed, petals generally blue-purple (rarely white, pink, or lavender), banner spot white, becoming magenta, banner centrally grooved, sides reflexed, wing tips slightly fused, wings sparsely ciliate on upper margins near claw, upper and lower keel margins ciliate near claw; stamens 10, filaments fused, 5 long with short anthers, 5 short with long anthers; style brushy.

Fruits: Pods dehiscent, 3.5-5 cm, 8-10 mm wide, coarsely hairy to tomentose.

Ecology: Found on hillsides, in canyons, flats, and in open or disturbed areas from 1,500-4,500 ft (457-1372 m); flowers February-April.

Notes: This is one of the more common and abundant of the Lupinus in the low desert. Distinguished largely by the succulent nature, hence the name.

Ethnobotany: Flowers were used ceremonially by the Pomo and Kashaya.

Etymology: Lupinus comes from Latin for wolf, while succulentus means thick and fleshy, from succus, juice, and -ulentus, a suffix meaning abundance.

Synonyms: Lupinus succulentus var. layneae

Editor: SBuckley, 2010