I hope, with your help, to learn at long last the species name of a lupin that I've had for many years. It's most interesting characteristic is that it spreads by sending out yellow, ropy, horizontal roots, such that new plants poke up a couple of feet away. (I would have thought this would make it pretty easy to identify, but no luck when I posted it on a different forum some time ago! However, I'm sure someone here will know it.) I hope the photos are clear enough to show what one might need to see; if not, please ask questions, and I'll try to provide more description. Thanks in advance, Lori
I bought it from a local plant restoration place (i.e. native plants), but I don't believe it resembles any lupin native to Alberta. I have a vague recollection that it may have been labelled as L. nootkatensis, but I don't believe it fits; also, I have recently bought another L. nootkatensis, which has different leaf structure.
Well, I've tried to key it out as best I could using the Flora of Canada, and ended up with nothing special. Unfortunately, the Flora of Canada doesn't provide full descriptions of species, so finding out that a particular species is rhizomatous is hit-or-miss (only if it appears in the couplets in the key). The only one mentioned there is Lupinus perennis, which I don't think this is based on leaflet shape. I've also looked at the Flora of Alberta - no mention of any rhizomatous species, so that was a dead end. I also checked the Flora of the Great Plains to see what exists to the south - Lupinus plattensis is also rhizomatous, but again, leaflet shape is off.
