Geography 316:  Biogeography     In progress  05/26/2005

The Biogeography of  Silver Bush Lupine (Lupinus albifrons).
 

by Colin Lee, student in Geography 316  Spring 2005

Thank you for visiting our site. This web pages was written by a student in Geography 316: Biogeography and edited by the instructor, Barbara Holzman, PhD.  All photos and maps are posted with specific copyright permission for the express use of education on these web pages. The students have tried to be as accurate as possible with the information provided and sources and references are cited at the end of each page.

Species Name: Lupinus albifrons
 
Kingdom: Plantae
Phylum: Spermatophyta 
Class: Magnoliopsida
Order: Fabales                      
Family: Fabaceae
Genus: Lupinus
Species:  Lupinus albifrons

 

 Figure 1. Silver Bush Lupine :  Photo by Colin Lee

Description of Species:
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The silver bush lupine, or Lupinus albifrons is a small, round shrub with  a woody, trunk-like base.  It is a deciduous perennial that takes up one to two feet of space, and can grow between two to five feet.  When it blooms, its flower is light blue to purple on three to twelve inch stalks, and its  foliage color is silver with a feathery texture (Perry, 1981).  Its whorled flower, which spans ten to fourteen millimeters, is pea-shaped, spiky, and has a middle upper petal that is either very or not hairy at all on the back (Munz,1961).  Due to the silky-hair like appearance on its six to eleven compounded leaflets, which span seven to ten centimeters long, branches, and stems, this shrub gives off a silver appearance (Casebeer, 1999). 

The silver bush lupine is found along the coasts of Oregon and California, and in dry open meadows, prairies,  and forest openings of these states (Casebeer, 1999).  Along these areas of Oregon and California, L. albifrons can thrive  in many native plant communities that are open sandy or  rocky areas below five thousand feet high elevation.  The way in which this species reproduces is by seed only out in their natural habitats, but these plants are also grown in nurseries.  L. albifrons are legumes and thus have nitrogen-fixing nodules on their roots. 

Figure 2. Flower of the Silver Bush Lupine
© 1995 Saint Mary's College of California		  

As a result, they are important for soils, as  they can take nitrogen from the air and "fix" it into the ground for the purposes of plant growth and  prosperity.  Like other perennial shrubs, this plant can live for many years and be used for mass or individual plantings (Perry, 1981).

 

Natural History:
 

The genus Lupinus is separated into two groups: the Old World lupines, which are found in Mediterranean regions and in Eastern Africa; and New World lupines that are found in parts of North and South America.  There are around twelve to thirteen Old World lupines that exist, while New World lupines consists of 90% of the genus (Ainouche and Bayer, 1998).  Due to its importance as a nitrogen-fixing organism, economically, there has always been a growing interest and demand for lupines which may explain why different species of Lupinus can be found on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean.  It may have been introduced into new environments, including California, and Lupinus albifrons became naturalized. 

However, no infrageneric classification of lupines is available at this time, and it is necessary to provide a clear overview of the genus' origin.  The existence of many Lupinus species has caused a major debate of where Lupinus originated: Mediterranean-African region, North America, South America, and East Asia.  In order to find a genetic similarity between all lupines, the use of restriction site mapping for the rbcL gene within Lupinus species has proven that there may be a common phylogenetic origin between Old and New World Lupines, but there isn't enough phylogenetic resolution within the genus to conclude where it originated (Ainouche and Bayer, 1999).
 

Evolution:

The silver bush lupine descended from a variety of Lupinus species, and is among two-hundred to four-hundred species of annual and perennial species of lupine that can be found from Alaska, spanning from the northern Western Hemisphere, to Chile in South America (Ainouche and Bayer, 1999).  Silver bush lupine is closely related to Lupinus littoralis, seashore lupine and Lupinus duranii also known as Mono Lake lupine, which both share the same genus: Lupinus, the same family: Fabaceae, because they all are apart of the pea family, and the same order: Fabales (See Figure 3).  In addition, besides the common, physical traits these three subspecies share, there is the commonality of geographic location as these lupine species are found in the Americas (Ainouche and Bayer, 1999).  They’ve evolved from a common pea species, and in-turn evolved from a common ancestor of flowering plants.  In terms of age, there is no further information of how old the species of Lupinus albifrons is in the world. 

 

 

Figure 3: Cladogram of Lupinus

© 1999 Botanical Society of America, Inc.

Distribution::

Figure 4. Distribution of L. albifrons throughout the United States

 
Figure 5. Distribution of L. albifrons throughout California

Lupinus albifrons are distributed along the West Coast region of the United States.  Specifically, this plant species is distributed from the southern region of Oregon to southern California, where it is native (See Fig. 4).  The distribution is continuous, where the species is found in continuous patches within California.  While it can be found in a few areas of Oregon, the majority of silver bush lupine are found in California, but only in certain counties of California; from Humboldt County in northern California to Ventura County in southern California (See Fig. 5).  It is not known why these particular counties have more L. albifrons  than other counties.  It can be mainly located on Coast Ranges by dry hillsides and in canyon areas (Perry, 1981).  It also inhabits the Sierra Nevada foothills where it blossoms from May and up until June, in sandy and rocky areas below 5,000 feet elevation, and along the western coast and inland areas, where it needs vast areas to endure shifting amounts of water and well drained soil (Casebeer, 1999). 

 

Another important element in the location of this species is that it must be planted or live in dry areas with lots of sun for the purposes of photosynthesis.  While it is suitable in dry areas, the plant can also be found in areas that range between thirty to ninety centimeters of rainfall per year.  L. albifrons are found in soils that have a pH range of six to eight, where water can be easily drained, and there are much nutrients for the plant to prosper. 

Other interesting issues:

The Silver Bush Lupine is a larval host plant for the endangered species, Mission Blue Butterfly.  As an egg, the butterfly lays upon the stems, leaves, seed pods, and flowers of L. albifrons, and it will hatch between four to seven days and become a larvae.  After this occurs, the larvae feed on the inner leave tissues of the plant, as well as feed entirely on the flower, which produces nectar that is essential for its survival.      

Bibliography
Ainouche, Abdel-Kader and Randall J. Bayer. 1998 American Journal of Botany: “Phylogenetic relationships in Lupinus (Fabaceae: Papilionoideae) based on internal transcribed spacer sequences (ITS) of nuclear ribosomal DNA [Online] Available: http://www.amjbot.org/cgi/content/full/86/4/590 (Accessed April 30, 2005)

American Journal of Botany. 1999. [Online] Available http://www.amjbot.org/cgi/content/full/86/4/590 (Accessed May 17, 2005)

Calflora 2005.  CalPhotos http://elib.cs.berkeley.edu/cgi/img_query?query_src=&enlarge=6121+1611+3982+0063 (Accessed April 30, 2005)

Casebeer, MaryRuth. 1999.  Discover California Wildflowers. Sonora, CA. Hooker Press

Las Pilitas. 2005.  Lupinus albifrons Silver Bush Lupine. [Online] Available: http://www.laspilitas.com/plants/404.htm (Accessed May 17, 2005)

Munz, Philip A. 1961. California Spring Wildflowers. Berkeley, CA.  University of California Press.

Naganowska, Barbara, Wolko, Bogdan, Sliwinska, Elwira, and Kaczmarek, Zygmunt. 2003 Annals of Botany “Nuclear DNA Content Variation and Species Relationships in the Genus Lupinus Fabaceae” [Online] Available: http://aob.oupjournals.org/cgi/reprint/92/3/349 (Accessed April 30, 2005)

Perry, Bob. 1981. Trees and Shrubs for Dry California Landscapes.  San Dimas, CA. Land Design Publishing

Plant Field Guide 2005. [Online] Available: http://www.nps.gov/goga/parklabs/library/plantguide/blue-violet/lupine.htm (Accessed May 17, 2005)

Plants National Database [Online] Available: http://plants.usda.gov/cgi_bin/topics.cgi?earl=plant_profile.cgi&symbol=LUAL4 (Accessed  April 09 2005)

Schmidt, Marjorie G. 1980 Growing California Native Plants. Berkeley and Los Angeles, CA. University of California Press

The Complete Botanica 2004 [Online] Available: http://www.crescentbloom.com/Plants/Genus/L/u/Lupinus.htm  Accessed: 04/22/05

U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service: Sacramento Fish and Wildlife Office: Sacramento Fish & Wildlife Office Species Account  MISSION BLUE BUTTERFLY (Icaricia icarioides missionensis) [Online] Available. http://sacramento.fws.gov/es/animal_spp_acct/mission_blue_butterfly.htm (Accessed May 17, 2005)

Weeden, Norman F. 1986.  A Sierra Nevada Flora. Berkeley, CA. Wilderness Press.

 

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