The lupins are blooming!
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| Many-leaved lupine, Lupinus polyphyllus |
These were growing in the ditch beside the highway north. Further south, on the upper highway, they cover large sections of the hillsides.
We have five native lupins; this one can be identified by the number of leaves from a central point; 10 to 17, say my guidebooks.
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| They like wet feet. |
One thing a bit worrisome. As I sat there on the bank, looking at lupins, I didn't see one single bee or other pollinator working on the flowers. There may be one on a leaf in the first photo. But there should have been a constant buzz around the stalks.
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| One more. No bees. |
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Los lupinos están en flor. Las fotos: el lupino de muchas hojas, Lupinus polyphyllus en la zanja al lado de la carretera hacia el norte. También los hay en grandes números, más al sur, bordeando la carretera superior.
Tenemos cinco especies de lupinos nativos; esta se puede reconocer por el número de hojuelas que salen de un punto central: de 10 a 17, según mis libros guía. Los otros lupinos llevan menos.
Una cosa que me preocupa; sentada allí al lado de la zanja por un buen rato, no vi ni una sola abeja, ni ninguna de los otros insectos polinizadores. Parece que hay una abeja en una de las hojas, pero nada más. Normalmente, las flores estarían rodeadas de una nube de abejas buscando polen.
I'm glad to hear they're native. I recently read a children's book to my kids of someone who tried to beautify the world by planting lupins wherever she went. A bit of an environmental disaster, I thought, if they were non-native. Fortunately the story was fiction.
ReplyDeleteBtw, the bumbles have been loving our lupins. Hopefully the bees will find your flowers too.