06/14/2026
Just resharing this post we made about native lupine vs the invasive western lupine. Right now we see L.polyphyllus growing all over our roadsides and even though it is beautiful it has taken over and pushed out our native lupine and the native Karner Blue butterfly.
Step 1 don’t plant Lupinus polyphyllus
Step 2: If you have L. polyphyllus dig it up OR at least make sure to cut the flower heads before it seeds.
Step 3: Buy some native lupines from Eastfield Native Plants!
Mainers should wish that Miss Rumphius understood what it means to be a native plant. The beloved Lupine is a standard favorite in Maine but did you know that most lupine seen in roadside meadows and on your tourist coffee mug is not native. Even worse, it has invaded the territory of our native lupine effectively pushing it out of the state. Native lupine, also called the sundial lupine (Lupinus perennis), has a more delicate, pale lavender blue flower and a smaller number of leaflets (7-11) compared to the bigleaf lupine (Lupinus polyphyllus) that has 11-17 leaflets and whose more full flower heads can be found in shades of purple, pink or white. As a member of the pea family, Fabaceae, sundial lupine roots have nodules that harbor symbiotic bacteria that are able to fix nitrogen making it available for use by the plant. This makes sundial lupine a great choice for more nutrient poor soils. Sundial lupine is the larval host for the endangered Karner Blue Butterfly (Lycaeides melissa samuelis) which used to be present across the eastern United States but has seen population declines in recent decades due to habitat fragmentation. If Miss Rumphius had just known about sundial lupine more Karner Blues might call Maine home. Get your sundial lupine from Eastfield Native Plants this season!
