Lupin
Wild Perennial Lupin (Lupinus perennis)
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Plantae
Division:	Magnoliophyta
Class:	Magnoliopsida
Order:	Fabales
Family:	Fabaceae
Subfamily:	Faboideae
Tribe:	Genisteae
Genus:	Lupinus L.
Subgenus:	Lupinus and Platycarpos (Wats.) Kurl.
Species
150-200 species, including: Lupinus albus Lupinus angustifolius Lupinus luteus Lupinus albifrons Lupinus arboreus Lupinus aridorum Lupinus arizonicus Lupinus benthamii Lupinus bicolor Lupinus chamissonis Lupinus diffusus Lupinus excubitus Lupinus formosus Lupinus hirsutissimus Lupinus jaimehintoniana Lupinus longifolius Lupinus microcarpus Lupinus mutabilis Lupinus nanus Lupinus nootkatensis Lupinus perennis Lupinus polyphyllus Lupinus sparsiflorus Lupinus stiversii Lupinus succulentus Lupinus sulphureus Lupinus texensis Lupinus tidestromii Lupinus variicolor Lupinus villosus

Lupin, often spelled lupine in North America, is the common name for members of the genus Lupinus in the family Fabaceae.

The genus includes between 150-200 species, and has a wide distribution in the Mediterranean region - Subgen. Lupinus, and the Americas - Subgen. Platycarpos (Wats.) Kurl.

Lupin leaves from below

The species are mostly herbaceous perennial plants 0.3-1.5 m tall, but some are annual plants and a few are shrubs up to 3 m tall, with one, Lupinus jaimehintoniana, a tree 8 m high with a trunk 20 cm in diameter, from the Mexican state of Oaxaca. They have a characteristic and easily recognised leaf shape, with soft green to grey-green or silvery leaves with the blades usually palmately divided into 5–17 leaflets or reduced to a single leaflet in a few species of the southeastern United States; in many species, the leaves are hairy with silvery hairs, often densely so. The flowers are produced in dense or open whorls on an erect spike, each flower 1-2 cm long, with a typical peaflower shape with an upper 'standard', two lateral 'wings' and two lower petals fused as a 'keel'. The fruit is a pod containing several seeds.