Blue-and-White Lupine
Lupinus Bicolor, Lindl. Pea Family
Stems.—Stoutish; six to ten inches high; silky. Leaves.—Alternate; with small stipules. Leaflets.—Five to seven; linear-spatulate; one inch long. Flowers.—Four or five lines long; blue and white; the white changing to red-purple after fertilization. Upper calyx-lip bifid; lower twice as long; entire. Keel.—Falcate; acute; ciliate toward the apex. Pod.—Small; about five-seeded. (See Lupinus.) Hab.—Western Central California.
In late spring the open fields about San Francisco take on a delicate, amethystine tinge, due to the blossoms of the blue-and-white lupine. After fertilization has taken place, the white in these blossoms turns to deep red, and this admixture gives the general lilac tone to the mass.