False Lupine
Thermopsis Californica, Wats. Pea Family
Stems.—Two feet tall. Leaves.—With leafy stipules an inch long. Leaflets.—Three; obovate to oblanceolate; an inch or two long; somewhat woolly. Flowers.—Yellow; in long-peduncled recemes. Calyx.—Deeply five-cleft; the two upper teeth often united. Corolla.—Papilionaceous; eight lines long. Stamens.—Ten; all distinct. Ovary.—One-celled. Pod.—Silky; six- to eight-seeded. Hab.—Marin County and southward.
The false lupine very closely resembles the true lupines, but may be distinguished from them by the stamens, which are all distinct, instead of being united into a sheath. Its silvery foliage and racemes of rather large canary-colored flowers are common upon open hill-slopes by April.