A few kilometres north, a few hundred metres higher; it makes a difference. In open spaces near our coast here on Vancouver Island, the lupines grow to a metre and a half tall. Their leaves are wide, the flowers densely packed along a long stalk. Taking the highway north, I find smaller lupines, the Nootka lupines, shorter, with smaller leaves; they can reach 1 metre tall. Up on the slopes of Mount Washington, the Arctic lupine grows; the leaves are smaller, with half as many leaflets, the flower stalks barely 60 cm. tall, with a few flowers on each stalk.
Other than that, lupines are lupines.
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| Arctic lupines, Lupinus arcticus, in Paradise Meadows, 1100 metres above sea level. |
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| 6 to 8 leaflets, a few flowers per stalk. |
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| And a long-bodied spider. I think it may be one of the Tetranathidae family. |
A favourite for many years.In NZ,in the early 50s, they grew wild (in many places, still do, to the annoyance of environmentalists) along railway lines and, on very steep grades, the trains slowed enough that passengers could walk faster. I wanted to pick lupins, but my mother would not let me get off the train...
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