Species
+

Lupinus polyphyllus Lindl.

Big-leaved lupine, Bigleaf Lupine, Blue-Pod Lupine, Garden Lupin

Climate known 75 photographs
Add one to my plants Sow seed

Every figure on this page is derived from public data by a stated rule and says its source; nothing here is written by a person or a model, except the Wikipedia passage, which is quoted and marked as such. How it is made.

Summary

Lupinus polyphyllus, the large-leaved lupine, big-leaved lupine, many-leaved lupine, blue-pod lupine, or, primarily in cultivation, garden lupin, is a species of lupine (lupin) native to western North America from southern Alaska and British Columbia and western Wyoming, and south to Utah and California. It commonly grows along streams and creeks, preferring moist habitats.

Text from Wikipedia, “Lupinus polyphyllus”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written. Kept separate from everything derived here.

About the genus · Lupinus

Lupinus, commonly known as lupin, lupine, or regionally bluebonnet, is a genus of plants in the legume family Fabaceae. The genus includes over 199 species, with centres of diversity in North and South America. Smaller centres occur in North Africa and the Mediterranean. More on Wikipedia ›

The opening of Wikipedia, “Lupinus”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written.

Family
Fabaceae
Described by
Lindl.
Native to
Alberta, British Columbia, Ontario +14
Wild records
55 in range· 8 open

At a glance

Warmest month
25°C
Jul, mean day; nights 14 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
1333mm/yr
12 wet months · peak Dec 200 mm (CHELSA)
Light
7–41DLI
mol/m²/day, winter to summer, open sky (CHELSA shortwave)
In short condensed by rule from the cultivation cards · not written by a person
Rain rule: a winter growing season, October to March in the northern hemisphere (October to March at the habitat, northern). Habitat rain 1333 mm a year, wettest December at 200 mm, driest July at 36 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 7 to 41 mol/m²/day. Cold floor -5.0 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).
Each sentence is one card's own one-line form, written by the same rule as the card (Its year, Rain, Light, Temperature); the note cannot say what a card does not. Months are given for the northern hemisphere (set your site in Settings to change this), and the habitat's own alongside. The cards · the figures.

Also known as Lupinus biddlei C.P.Sm.; Lupinus subsericeus B.L.Rob. ex Piper.

Cultivation

Its year Rain rule: a winter growing season, October to March in the northern hemisphere (October to March at the habitat, northern).

This species’ habitat figures, and what two fixed rules read from them.

The rain rule reads a winter growing season: 70% of the year's rain (954 mm of 1333 mm) falls in October to March, cooler than the year (wet-season mean 6.6 °C against a yearly mean of 11.0 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: April to September.

Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the envelope cells: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve gives a season to reverse. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain Habitat rain 1333 mm a year, wettest December at 200 mm, driest July at 36 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

1333 mm a year at the habitat, 954 mm of it October to March. Wettest month December at 200 mm, driest July at 36 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 855 mm to 1855 mm (10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year) (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the envelope cells. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light Open sky over the habitat: 7 to 41 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 7 to 41 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 5, the highest 90th-percentile month 44).

CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.

Warmth and air Cold floor -5.0 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell is -5.0 °C, the absolute minimum -15.1 °C, about 35 frost nights a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 31.1 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 1.3 °C in December (across the envelope cells -4.8 °C to 3.1 °C), warmest day 24.6 °C in July (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: -5.0 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell (NASA POWER).

NASA POWER daily minima and maxima 1981–2024 at the typical cell, lapse-corrected to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA. The cold floor is the figure named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 58 to 65% across the year (monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the envelope cells.

The figures the cards read from are in Climate below, and where they came from in Natural habitat.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat climate through the yearMean day from 6 °C in Dec to 25 °C in Jul; mean night from 1 °C in Dec to 14 °C in Aug. The cold quarter, Nov to Jan, is the three months around the coldest night. 1333 mm of rain a year, most in Dec. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 42 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was -15.1 °C and the 99th-percentile day 31.1 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.-20°-10°10°20°30°40°frost31.1° 99th-percentile day (undated)-15.1° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter050100150200250300mm rainDLI 7–41RH 58–65 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 42 habitat cells cold quarter: the three months around the coldest night extremes over 44 years at the typical cell, marked at the edge: undated DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C7 / -1–98 / 1–1111 / 6–1314 / 12–1618 / 15–2021 / 18–2425 / 22–2825 / 22–2821 / 18–2515 / 13–189 / 6–116 / 1–8
Night °C2 / -10–32 / -9–44 / -5–55 / 2–69 / 7–1011 / 11–1514 / 13–1814 / 13–1712 / 11–148 / 6–94 / 1–61 / -5–3
Rain mm187 / 86–239127 / 70–173128 / 75–17397 / 59–14580 / 61–10867 / 47–11036 / 14–10039 / 19–9960 / 42–106116 / 70–192196 / 106–275200 / 99–230
DLI8 / 6–1313 / 12–1920 / 19–2629 / 28–3336 / 34–3939 / 37–4141 / 39–4436 / 34–3927 / 26–2916 / 14–198 / 7–127 / 5–10
RH %65 / 59–6863 / 57–6561 / 57–6360 / 56–6259 / 56–6159 / 56–6158 / 53–6058 / 54–6160 / 56–6262 / 58–6665 / 60–6865 / 59–68

Each figure is the median across the 42 grid cells holding the 55 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. Extremes and elevation were read at the typical cell 867:1141 (46.625, -122.925). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -15.1 °C, 1st-percentile night -5.0 °C, 99th-percentile day 31.1 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Envelope: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 42 distinct grid cells holding the 55 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 867:1141 (its coldest month's mean night nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 46.50_-123.125, lapse-corrected -127 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 84 m (cell mean).

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP; the marker is where the records are densest and decides nothing: the climate was read across every in-range record's cell, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeAlberta, British Columbia, Ontario, Québec, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Washington, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New York, Vermont, California, Nevada· introduced: Denmark, Finland, Great Britain, Norway, Sweden, Austria, Belgium, Czechoslovakia, Germany, Hungary, Netherlands, Poland, Switzerland, France, Bulgaria, Romania, Yugoslavia, Belarus, Baltic States, Central European Russia, East European Russia, North European Russia, South European Russia, Northwest European Russia, Ukraine, Buryatiya, Krasnoyarsk, West Siberia, Kamchatka, Khabarovsk, Magadan, Primorye, Sakhalin, Kazakhstan, Kirgizistan, Transcaucasus, Mongolia, Bangladesh, Pakistan, New South Wales, South Australia, Victoria, New Zealand North, New Zealand South, Labrador, Newfoundland, Illinois, Maryland, Argentina South, Chile South
Kew's description“perennial” · “temperate”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker49.123, -123.059 · in the densest population, 38 records (69% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 55 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 8 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 416 km away. 724 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored.
The map markerthe map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population inside the densest 2° block of the 55 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Lupinus polyphyllusLupinus polyphyllusLupinus polyphyllusLupinus polyphyllusLupinus polyphyllusLupinus polyphyllusLupinus polyphyllusLupinus polyphyllus

Photographs: (c) Henrik Kibak, some rights reserved (CC BY); no rights reserved · CC0 (2); (c) Nicolas Olejnik, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) Patrick Hacker, some rights reserved (CC BY) (4).

Photographs: iNaturalist and GBIF media did not answer when this page was built; what is shown came from the sources that did.

Papers naming this species

Works whose title or abstract names Lupinus polyphyllus, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

Flowering phenology in subalpine meadows: Does climate variation influence community co‐flowering patterns?
Jessica R. K. Forrest, David W. Inouye, James D. Thomson (2010) · Ecology
Pollen advertisement: chemical contrasts between whole‐flower and pollen odors
Heidi E. M. Dob Son, Inga Groth, Günnar Bergström (1996) · American Journal of Botany
Flora and lepidoptera fauna adversely affected by invasive Lupinus polyphyllus along road verges
Anu Valtonen, Juha Jantunen, Kimmo Saarinen (2006) · Biological Conservation
Assembly rules operating along a primary riverbed–grassland successional sequence
Robert J. Holdaway, Ashley D. Sparrow (2006) · Journal of Ecology
Can an Ecoregion Serve as a Seed Transfer Zone? Evidence from a Common Garden Study with Five Native Species
Stephanie Miller, Amy Bartow, Melanie Gisler, Kimiora L. Ward (2010) · Restoration Ecology
Determining the Optimal Sowing Density for a Mixture of Native Plants Used to Revegetate Degraded Ecosystems
Carla M. Burton, Philip J. Burton, Richard J. Hebda, Nancy J. Turner (2006) · Restoration Ecology
Permanent Genetic Resources added to Molecular Ecology Resources Database 1 February 2013–31 March 2013
Maria Cristina Arias, Christiane Attéké, Solange Cristina Augusto, James P. Bailey (2013) · Molecular Ecology Resources

Similar habitat climate the 6 species whose habitat climate is nearest this one's: mean day and night, month by month, and rain on a log scale, in calendar order, so a habitat with the same seasons six months out is far, not near. Nothing else counts: not range, not family.

Other Lupinus 2 in the reference

History & registers

Where this page came from built 2026-09-20 · dossier v2 · node
gbif.species answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.synonyms answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.vernacular answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
wcvp.distribution answered
gbif.occurrences answeredGBIF occurrence search API
climate answered
wikidata answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
wikipedia answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped
inat.taxon not askedcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive)
inat.photos.wild answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped
inat.photos.cultivated nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
commons nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
gbif.media did not answercarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: api.gbif.org not asked: offline re-derivation
openalex answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped

Every upstream is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, or refused. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 12 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.