Silky Lupine

Lupinus sericeus

Hosts 2 caterpillarsPollinator plantNitrogen fixer

Growing it

When	Flowers June to August; fruits August to September
Type	wildflower
Sun	Full sun
Water	Low
Soil	pH 5.5–7
Hardiness	zone 3–7
Mature height	0.6 m
Mature spread	0.75 m
Spacing	0.5 m
Years to maturity	3
Bloom	Jun–Aug
Flower colour	Blue read from a published flora
In bloom	June July August
Fruit	Aug–Sep
Native to	AB

hand-compound leaves about 10 cm long

Where it has been recorded

BothSpecimensObservations

39 squares of about 28 km, each holding at least one record. A square is not a claim that the plant grows throughout it, and an unshaded square is unrecorded rather than empty. Darker squares hold more records, which follows roads and towns as much as it follows the plant. 51 herbarium specimens and 97 field observations this project may redraw. A filled dot is a pressed sheet somebody can re-examine; a hollow ring is a photograph identified by community agreement. Where the dots are dense is where people have looked, not where the plant is commonest, and empty ground is unsurveyed rather than unoccupied. How this map is made.

Which ecoregions the records fall in

Aspen Parkland central AB / SK: 136 records, high confidence
Northern Continental Divide south AB: 87 records, high confidence
Western Alberta Upland central AB: 23 records, high confidence
Fescue Grassland south AB: 16 records, medium confidence
Moist Mixed Grassland south AB / SK: 7 records, low confidence
Mixed Grassland south AB / SK: 3 records, low confidence

These are counts of records collected somewhere in the region, which is the resolution of the evidence: the map above shows where inside it. A region with 3 records is not the same claim as one with three hundred, so the count travels with the region. A region missing from this list means nobody has recorded it there, which is not the same as the plant being absent. Records within 900 m of a border count for neither side, because the border is not drawn finely enough to say which one they are on. Source: GBIF occurrence search + PRESERVED_SPECIMEN pass, retrieved 2026-08-24. Boundaries digitised from the National Ecological Framework for Canada v2.2 (Ecological Stratification Working Group 1995), simplified to about 900 m for display: an outline is accurate to roughly a kilometre, not to the metre. How these counts are made.

See every observation, live and current, on GBIF or iNaturalist.

Documented animals

65 documented relationships.

nectar for

A Digger Bee LaManna et al. 2020
Andrena lawrencei Specimen records from ecdysis.org
Andrena milwaukeensis LaManna et al. 2020
Andrena thaspii LaManna et al. 2020
Arrowhead Blue LaManna et al. 2020
Black-tailed Bumble Bee Specimen records from www.bumblebeewatch.org
Boisduval's Blue LaManna et al. 2020
Brown-tailed Bumble Bee Specimen records from ecdysis.org
Central Bumble Bee Specimen records from ecdysis.org
Colletes kincaidii LaManna et al. 2020
Eucera edwardsii LaManna et al. 2020
Eucera frater Specimen records from ecdysis.org
Golden Northern Bumble Bee Specimen records from ecdysis.org
Halictus tripartitus LaManna et al. 2020
Hoplitis hypocrita LaManna et al. 2020
Hoplitis sambuci Specimen records from ecdysis.org
Hoplitis truncata LaManna et al. 2020
Hunt's Bumble Bee Specimen records from ecdysis.org
Lasioglossum albipenne LaManna et al. 2020
Lasioglossum egregium LaManna et al. 2020
Lasioglossum nigroviride LaManna et al. 2020
Megachile gemula LaManna et al. 2020
Megachile melanophaea LaManna et al. 2020
Megachile onobrychidis LaManna et al. 2020
Melissa Blue LaManna et al. 2020
Nevada Bumble Bee Specimen records from www.bumblebeewatch.org
Ochre-footed Long-horned Bee Specimen records from ecdysis.org
Osmia aff.paradisica LaManna et al. 2020
Osmia albolateralis LaManna et al. 2020
Osmia atrocyanea LaManna et al. 2020
Osmia bucephala LaManna et al. 2020
Osmia juxta LaManna et al. 2020
Osmia nanula LaManna et al. 2020
Osmia pusilla LaManna et al. 2020
Osmia trevoris LaManna et al. 2020
Pearl Crescent LaManna et al. 2020
Red-belted Bumble Bee LaManna et al. 2020
Red-tailed Bumble Bee Specimen records from www.bumblebeewatch.org
Systoechus oreas LaManna et al. 2020
Two-ranked Bumble Bee Specimen records from ecdysis.org
Western Bumble Bee Specimen records from ecdysis.org
Woodland Skipper LaManna et al. 2020
Yellow-fronted Bumble Bee Specimen records from www.bumblebeewatch.org

pollen for

Blue Orchard Mason Bee Guzman et al. 2022
Brown-belted Bumble Bee Guzman et al. 2022
Bumblebees Wilson & Carril 2015
Central Bumble Bee Guzman et al. 2022
Eucera douglasiana Guzman et al. 2022
Eucera edwardsii Guzman et al. 2022
Golden Northern Bumble Bee Guzman et al. 2022
Halictus confusus Guzman et al. 2022
Hoplitis hypocrita Guzman et al. 2022
Hunt's Bumble Bee Guzman et al. 2022
Lasioglossum albipenne Guzman et al. 2022
Leafcutter Bees Wilson & Carril 2015
Megachile melanophaea Guzman et al. 2022
Megachile perihirta Guzman et al. 2022
Northern Amber Bumble Bee Packer
Orange-banded Bumble Bee Guzman et al. 2022
Osmia odontogaster Guzman et al. 2022
Osmia trevoris Guzman et al. 2022
Two-ranked Bumble Bee Guzman et al. 2022
Western Bumble Bee Guzman et al. 2022

caterpillar host for

Clouded Sulphur Acorn & Sheldon 2006
Silvery Blue Acorn & Sheldon 2006

Also worth knowing

Safety

High toxicity to pets; High toxicity to people

Buying it

About $8–$16 per plant (estimate), usually from a native-plant nursery. Estimate (herb default); AB retail as of 2026

Where these numbers came from

Flower detail: not verified, a genus-level estimate