Desert Lupine
Lupinus sparsiflorus
A slender winter annual whose blue-purple flower spikes carpet the Sonoran Desert after good rains, often beside golden poppies. A nitrogen-fixer that reseeds for the next wet year.
- Family
- Fabaceae
- Type
- wildflower
- Lifespan
- annual
- Height
- 0.5–2 ft
- Spacing
- 0.5–1 ft apart
- Light
- sun
- Soil moisture
- dry
- Soil pH
- neutral, alkaline
- Bloom
- January, February, March, April, May
- Bloom colors
- blue, purple
- Wildlife value
- pollinators, butterflies, larval host
- Caterpillar hosts
- ~35 butterfly & moth species
- Landscape uses
- border, container
- Native states
- AZ, CA, NM, NV, UT
Related native plants
More Lupinus species
- Texas Bluebonnet (Lupinus texensis)
- Miniature Lupine (Lupinus bicolor)
- Wild Lupine (Lupinus perennis)
- Arroyo Lupine (Lupinus succulentus)
- Yellow Bush Lupine (Lupinus arboreus)
- Bigleaf Lupine (Lupinus polyphyllus)