home

Lupinus arboreus - Tree Lupin

Phylum: Magnoliophyta - Class: Equisetopsida - Order: Fabales - Family: Fabaceae

Tree Lupin, Lupinus arboreus

This perennial evergreen shrub was introduced from California to Britain in the 1700s, and it has since become popular as a municipal planting on roadside verges and banks. Once established it easily self-seeds in dry and frost-free locations.

Description

This evergreen shrub grows to a height of 2 m. It has greyy-green palmate leaves each with 5 to12 oval leaflets 2 to 6cm long, The flowers, which form racemes 10 to 30cm in length, are usually yellow but occasionally they are white with a mauve tinge.

Closeup picture of Tree Lupin flowers

Distribution

Tree Lupin is particularly common on southern and western coasts around the UK, and it has colonised coastal habitats in many other parts of Eurpe as well as Australia, New Zealand and parts of Asia and South America.

Habitat

The Tree Lupin, more accurately but less frequently referred to as the Bush Lupin, is particularly common on the light, sandy soils of the coastal strip of south and west Wales.

Flowering times

Tree Lupins bloom from May to August and are generally at their best from mid June to the end of July.

Tree Lupin, Lupinus arboreaus, West Wales UK

The Tree Lupin plants shown on this page were photographed on the West Wales coast in July.

Sue Parker's latest ebook is a revised and enlarged edition of Wild Orchids in The Burren. Full details here...

Buy it for just £5.95 on Amazon...


Wildflowers in the Algarve, an introductory guide, by Sue Parker

Sue Parker's latest ebook is a revised and enlarged second edition of the acclaimed Wildflowers in the Algarve - an introductory guide. Full details here...

Buy it for just £3.95 on Amazon...

Sue Parker's new ebook is a comprehensive and fully revised edition of her acclaimed field guide to the Wild Orchids of Wales. Full details here...

Buy it for just £5.95 on Amazon...

Sue Parker's 5-star acclaimed field guide to the Wild Orchids of the Algarve is now available as an ebook. Full details here...

Buy it for just £5.95 on Amazon...


Please Help Us: If you have found this information interesting and useful, please consider helping to keep First Nature online by making a small donation towards the web hosting and internet costs.

Any donations over and above the essential running costs will help support the conservation work of Plantlife, the Rivers Trust and charitable botanic gardens - as do author royalties and publisher proceeds from books by Pat and Sue.

© 1995 - 2024 First Nature: a not-for-profit volunteer-run resource

Please help to keep this free resource online...

Terms of use - Privacy policy - Disable cookies - Links policy