Sundial lupine

Lupinus perennis, the sundial lupine or wild blue lupine, is a perennial herb of the legume family native to dry sandy soils of eastern and central North America, from Maine and Quebec south to Florida and west to Minnesota and Louisiana. It arises from a stout taproot, producing erect, slightly hairy stems 30-70 cm tall. The palmately compound leaves are distinctive, with 7-11 narrowly oblanceolate leaflets 2-5 cm long radiating from the tip of a long petiole and tending to track the sun, the basis for the common name. From late spring into early summer the stems bear showy terminal racemes 10-25 cm long of pea-like flowers, typically a clear blue to violet-blue, though pink and white forms occur. The fruit is a flattened, hairy pod 3-5 cm long that splits explosively at maturity. It is the sole larval host plant of the federally endangered Karner blue butterfly.