Bentham lupine is an erect villous annual to 2' tall with stout, simple to branched stems and slender petioles, leaves with 7-10 linear leaflets that look somewhat like spiders (hence another common name, spider lupine), and long racemes of ± whorled flowers. The blooms are deep blue with a yellow or whitish spot on the banner and a keel the upper margin of which is glabrous and the lower ciliate near the base.  The ascending seed pods are 1" to 1-1/2" long, coarsely hairy and contain 3-9 seeds.  This lovely lupine occupies open to rocky slopes below about 4000' in valley grassland and foothill woodland from n. Los Angeles Co. and Kern Co. north, and areas of the nw Mojave Desert.  It blooms from March to May.  These pictures were taken in the Antelope Valley.

Click here for Latin name derivations: 1) Lupinus 2) benthamii.
Pronunciation: loo-PIE-nus BEN-tham-ee-eye.
Click here for Botanical Term Meanings.