About Lupinus sparsiflorus Benth.
Lupinus sparsiflorus, commonly known as Coulter's lupine, is a species of lupin native to North America. In the United States, it grows in California, Nevada, Arizona and Utah, while in Mexico it is found in Baja California and Sonora. Another common name for this species is Mojave lupine, a name it shares with Lupinus odoratus. This species is an annual herb that grows 20 to 40 centimetres tall. Each palmate leaf is composed of 7 to 11 very narrow leaflets, which reach up to 3 centimetres long and just a few millimetres wide. Its inflorescence is a spiral of several flowers, each around one centimetre long. Flowers are typically blue or purple, darkening as they age, with a white to pink patch on the banner. This desert lupine can also bear pale blue or purple flowers, where the upper petal (banner) has a yellow spot that turns reddish after pollination. The two lower petals (the keel) are short and wide, hairy along the bottom edge, and curve upward to a slender tip. When the seed pods ripen, they explode to scatter their seeds by wind.
