Harlequin Lupine Seeds (Lupinus stiversii)

Ornate and improbable…a wild lupine with flowers that can be purple, pink, cream, and yellow all at the same time…

Endemic to disjunct, dry, sloping locations around California, from the hills above Hollywood, to scattered populations around Yosemite, to sun-baked rocky grasslands of the northern Sierra Nevada, this is a lupine unlike others. It’s a desert carnival in miniature. It’s an annual, reaching a mere 18-inches in height (more often shorter than that).

Yes, it’s visited by bumble bees. 

Yes, it’s a potential caterpillar host plant for a bunch of butterflies: the Melissa blue (Plebejus melissa), the sooty hairstreak (Satyrium fuliginosum), the Afranius duskywing (Erynnis afranius), the arrowhead blue (Glaucopsyche piasus), the western sulphur (Colias occidentalis), the shasta blue (Plebejus shasta), Queen Alexandra's sulphur (Colias Alexandra), the Acmon Blue (Plebejus acmon), the Persius Duskywing (Erynnis persius).

And yes, it’s a likely caterpillar host for interesting moths, such as the savanna-dwelling noctunid moth Dryotype opina, and the secretive little gelechiid, Aproaerema nigrella. 

Yes, it can basically grow in sunny parched locations with the thinnest soil.

Yes… yes… yes…

Yes, it is and does all of those things. But you’ll plant it simply because it’s absurd and wonderful at the same time. 

Approximately 20+ seeds (0.1 grams)