Lupine

lu'pin, a group of herbs, sometimes shrubs, belonging to the pea family. A few grow in the Mediterranean region and in eastern United States, but most of the eighty or more species are found in western North America. Lupines send up a cluster of stalks terminating in conspicuous pyramids of white, blue, or yellow pea-shaped flowers followed by various shaped pods of beans. Like clover, which see, they have the power of fertilizing poor land. The seeds are an article of diet in southern Europe. Various local names are: Sundial, Atlantic coast; tree lupine, California; buckbean, North Dakota. The word lupine is Latin meaning wolfish. In Germany the lupine is known as the wolfbean. See Locoweed