Duration: Annual
Nativity: Native
Lifeform: Forb/Herb
General: Annual herb, 5-10 cm tall, from a taproot; stems absent or nearly so; if present, stems less than 2 cm long and obscured by leaf bases.
Leaves: In a basal tuft, on petioles 1-7 cm long; leaves palmately compound, with 5-8 leaflets per leaf; leaflets spatulate, 5-15 mm long, pilose on the lower surface and mostly glabrous on the upper surface.
Flowers: Blue-purple or white, in dense, nearly spherical clusters about 2 cm long (racemes elongating somewhat in fruit but remaining dense); clusters of flowers held just above the leaves on peduncles up to 6 cm long; flowers 5-7 mm long, with pea flower morphology (papilionaceous); calyx 2-lipped and villous, the upper lip 1-2 mm long and 2-lobed, and the lower lip 4-6 mm long and 3-toothed; petals bright blue or blue-purple to white, sometimes with a yellow spot in the middle of the banner petal (the wide upper petal).
Fruits: Pods broadly ovate and laterally compressed, 1 cm long; splitting open to release several seeds.
Ecology: Found on dry slopes and flats, from 3,000-7,000 ft (914-2134 m); flowers April-July.
Distribution: OR, e CA, NV, UT, CO, AZ, and NM
Notes: Look for a low, copiously hairy annual, with palmately compound leaves on long petioles, all crowded in a basal cluster; and flowers in dense, almost headlike clusters, held just above the leaves on leafless flower stalks. It is distinguished from other annual Lupines by having no real stem (besides the leafless flower stalks), with the leaves all attached directly to the base of the plant. Also distinguished by its dense clusters of flowers, no more then 2.5 cm in height, which elongate a little in fruit but not so much that the central stalk of the inflorescence is visible. L. brevicaulis also has a distinctive 2-lipped calyx, with the upper lip only about half the length of the lower lip.
Ethnobotany: Unknown, but other species in the genus have uses.
Etymology: Lupinus comes from Latin for wolf or wolfish, alluding to the belief (now known to be untrue) that lupines rob the soil of nutrients; brevicaulis means short-stemmed.
Synonyms: Lupinus dispersus, Linnaeus scaposus
Editor: SBuckley 2010, AHazelton 2017
