Plant · P-095

Wild Lupine

Lupinus perennis

Wild Lupine sends up spikes of blue-purple flowers that draw native bees, bumblebees, butterflies and hummingbirds, and fixes its own nitrogen as it grows. It needs sharp-draining sandy to loamy ground at a mildly acid to neutral pH and struggles on heavy, water-holding, alkaline clay. The seed and seedpods cook into a protein-rich vegetable once the bitter alkaloids are leached out with an overnight soak - skip that step and they stay unpleasantly bitter and mildly toxic.