Lupinus bicolor, Miniature Lupine

Blue and white annual lupine to 16" tall. Makes good bank or meadow planting in full sun and lean soil. Blooms in spring, often with the California poppy, a classic California combination. Use as part of a wildflower planting, where it sets off the many yellows of spring flower fields. It also can be found in different chaparral communities. Like other members of the pea family, it captures nitrogen from the air to store in the ground, an important function in the usually infertile soil that wildflowers grow in.

Miniature lupine has a number of variations, some of which make it difficult to distinguish from sky lupine, Lupinus nanus. It has the typical palmate (hand-shaped) leaves that other lupines have, only hairier, and usually a shorter flower. Bicolor lupine grows from California to BC.