THE NEXT BIG SHOW IS WAITING IN THE WINGS!

A LARGE LUPINE PLANT ON THE SOUTH SIDE OF THE HOUSE...

...ITS LARGE FLOWER SPIKES STILL ELONGATING

Tuesday, 8:45 AM.  52 degrees F at the ferry dock, 49 on the back porch.  Wind SSW, calm with light gusts.  The sky has high clouds and overcast, but the sun is breaking through.  The humidity is 73%, and the barometer continues to fall, now at 30.12", and it looks like we may have some showers tomorrow.

 The lupines (Lupinus perennis), in the Pea Family,are just starting to bloom all around the area. and will soon put on their annual spectacular.  Lupines get their genus name from the latin name for wolf, lupus, because early early Europeans  thought that since the their lupin species grew in sandy barrens the plants must “wolf” the soil nutrients, which they do not, but are rather an indicator of infertile soils. In fact, being legumes, they actually increase soil fertility.

   Ours are a real show, and could be a major tourist attraction if their annual blooming date was more predictable, which it is not, but can vary by a couple of weeks depending upon the weather. Our lupines look like they are mostly the native lupine, which grows on sandy soils over much of the east and the Midwest, but local heritage says they were introduced from the Bayfield flower farms early in the 1900’s. I think the story is more complicated than that, as the wild lupine is common in Bayfield County in the oak barrens, and may have migrated from there over the years, and possibly these plants have mixed with horticultural selections of the native lupine grown by the flower farms. 

    In any case it is perhaps a complicated history, and the USDA and the Wisconsin sources are not particularly helpful in its telling.  Our plants are mostly deep blue with some white and pink individuals and the individual flowers have white throats; the native plants have pretty much that range of color variability. I think our roadside and field plants may have originated from horticultural color selections that escaped back into native populations, enriching their color palette.  I have seen these plants all along the southern Lake Superior shoreline and northern Lake Michigan dunes, from Duluth to at least the Mackinac Bridge, so if they aren't truly native they might as well be considered such for all practical purposes. But, truly native or not, they are beautiful, and a joy to see. I have seen the Texas bluebonnets in full bloom (also a species of lupine but much shorter) and I think ours are every bit as much of an attraction.

   If I were more of a botanical sleuth I would try to really figure this conundrum out, and maybe I will get into it in greater depth at some future time. Photos really do not do the annual lupine display justice, as they often occur in huge fields which don't seem to have much of an impact in a photograph, and they usually appear as well in patches large and small along the roadside, like pearls on a string, or  like charms on a bracelet, so their aesthetic impact is much greater than that of  photographs. 

   In any case, the next big show is waiting in the wings, as soon as we get a few more warm days.