Product Review

Lupinus polyphyllus (large-leaved lupine, big-leaved lupine, many-leaved lupine or, primarily in cultivation, garden lupin) is a species of lupine (lupin) native to western North America from southern Alaska and British Columbia east to Quebec, and western Wyoming, and south to Utah and California. It commonly grows along streams and creeks, preferring moist habitats. It is a perennial herbaceous plant with stout stems growing to 1.5 metres (4 ft 11 in) tall. It is commonly used in gardens for its attractiveness to bees, ability to improve poor sandy soils with their nitrogen fixing ability and flowers; numerous cultivars have been selected for differing flower colour, including red, pink, white, blue, and multicoloured with different colours on different petals. Often hybrids between L. polyphyllus and L. arboreus are used, and sold under hybrid names such as Rainbow Lupins, Lupin Tutti Fruitti, and Band of Nobles (mixed), Chandelier (yellow), My Castle (red), Noble Maiden (white) The Chatelaine (pink), and The Governor (blue). Low alkaloidal or sweet cultivars of this lupine suitable for fodder crops have been bred. To avoid restoration of alkaloid synthesis in cross-pollinated species of lupine, a new approach has been developed on the basis of specific crossing.