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. |
