Lupinus diffusus

Lupinus diffusus
Photo by Wayne Matchett, SpaceCoastWildflowers.com
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Plantae
Division:	Magnoliophyta - Flowering plants
Class:	Magnoliopsida – Dicotyledons
Order:	Fabales
Family:	Fabaceae ⁄ Leguminosae
Genus:	Lupinus
Species:	L. diffusus
Binomial name
Lupinus diffusus Nutt.
Natural range of Lupinus diffusus from USDA NRCS Plants Database.

Common name: Oak Ridge lupine, Skyblue lupine

Description

"Annual, biennial, or perennial herbs, rarely shrubs. Leaves palmately compound with (3) 5-15 (18) leaflets or 1-foliolate and then appearing simple; stipules partly adnate to the petiole, often caduceus. Racemes terminal with pedicellate, papilionaceous flowers subtended by usually caduceus bracts. Calyx conspicuously 2-lipped with the lips entire to deeply lobed; corolla commonly blue, white or yellow, rarely purplish, standard broadly obovate to orbicular and typically with reflexed margins; stamens monadelphous, filaments o two lengths, the longer with globose, versatile anthers, the shorter with linear, basifixed anthers; ovary sessile. Legume oblong, flattened, 2-12 seeded." - Radford et al 1964

"Cespitose herb perennating, decumbent stems 2-4 dm or more long from a woody taproot; more or less densely short-pubescent throughout. Leaves 1-foliolate, evergreen, mostly oblong to elliptic, 4-12 cm long, 1.5-5 cm wide; petiole 3-10 cm long; stipules fused to petiole for (0.3) 0.8-2 (3) cm , free portion filiform, 0.5-2.5 cm long. Racemes 1-3 dm long; pedicels 1-4 mm long, each subtended by a caduceus, subulate bract 4-8 mm long, the lower 3-lobed with the 2 laterals linear and ca. 2 mm long and the central 5-7 mm long; petals light to deep blue, the standard with a conspicuous cream spot. Legume linear-oblong, 3-4.5 cm long, 7-9 mm broad, appressed-pubescent with trichomes ca. 2 mm long.' - Radford et al 1964

Distribution

It is distributed through out the southeast, from Mississippi through North Carolina .

Ecology

Habitat

In the Coastal Plain in Florida, L. diffusus can occur in longleaf pine-scrub oak sand ridges, sand pine scrubs, deciduous scrub oak barrens, sand pine woods, and live oak-palmetto scrubs. Associated species include Carya floridana, Lechea, Chamaecyparis, Quercus virginiana, Q. laevis and Q. incana (FSU Herbarium).

Phenology

Flowers January through May and fruits April through July (FSU Herbarium).

Seed dispersal

Seeds are dispersed by wind and animals.

Pollination

The following Hymenoptera families and species were observed visiting flowers of Lupinus diffusus at Archbold Biological Station (Deyrup 2015):

Apidae: Bombus griseocollis

Megachilidae: Anthidiellum notatum rufomaculatum, A. perplexum, Megachile exilis parexilis

Photo Gallery

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  Flowers of Lupinus diffusus

  Photo by Wayne Matchett, SpaceCoastWildflowers.com

References and notes

Deyrup, M.A. and N.D. 2015. Database of observations of Hymenoptera visitations to flowers of plants on Archbold Biological Station, Florida, USA.

Florida State University Robert K. Godfrey Herbarium database. URL: http://herbarium.bio.fsu.edu. Last accessed: October 2015. Collectors: Loran C. Anderson, J. Beckner, D. Burch, George R. Cooley, A.H. Curtiss, H.A. Davis, R.K. Godfrey, M. Hopkins, Ann F. Johnson, Beverly Judd, Walet Judd, Edwin Keppner, R. Kral, O. Lakela, Robert J. Lemaire, Fred L. Lewton, Sidney McDaniel, Grady W. Reinert, Paul O. Schallert, D.B. Ward, Kenneth A. Wilson, Carroll E. Wood, Jean Wooten. States and Counties: Florida: Brevard, Clay, Citrus, Coffee, Hernando, Highlands, Hillsborough, Lake, Levy, Marion, Okaloosa, Osceola, Polk, Santa Rosa, Seminole, Walton, Washington. Compiled by Tall Timbers Research Station and Land Conservancy.

Radford, Albert E., Harry E. Ahles, and C. Ritchie Bell. Manual of the Vascular Flora of the Carolinas. 1964, 1968. The University of North Carolina Press. 586-7. Print.