In bud scarcely a trace of the purple tint shows, petals and calyx being pink and greenish-white,—even when the upright petal first turns back, only a few dainty flecks of dark color may be discerned; with maturity the purple and blue increase in depth. The blossoms at the base of the spike begin to open earliest. Not the least of the Lupine’s attractions is the graceful curve of the stalk,—rarely is the flower-spike stiffly erect. It is a communistic plant, spreading all over a sand plain and making it a field of blue in blossom time, the roots buried firmly and to a surprising depth in the loose soil.
WILD LUPINE: Lupinus perennis.
| Vetch. | Vicia Cracca. |
| Tare. |
Found along the borders of thickets, and in fields among grasses and grains, in June and July.
The climbing, leafy stalk grows from 1 to 2 feet high; it is tough-fibred, and much grooved with fine lines. Color, green.
The compound leaf is composed of 20 or more side leaflets, and terminates in a tendril; the leaflets are small and narrow, and are tipped with little needle-like bristles; the surface is finely downy. The leaves, on very short stems, are alternate and clasping by a pair of half-arrow-shaped wings. The color is grayish-green.
The flower is small, and shaped like the bean blossom; its color is a fresh, light, bluish-violet tint, the broad upper petal being faintly lined with darker violet; the calyx is unequally 5-parted, and colored like the corolla. The flowers are densely crowded in long, one-sided curving spikes that grow from the angles of the leaves.
The leafage of this plant affords a good example of the refined green generally found accompanying flowers of a blue or violet hue; its stalk is perhaps a little awkward in gesture, but not so the flexible curving flower-clusters. It grows in communities, and seen from a little distance forms a beautiful mass of blue.
