Washington lupin

Lupinus polyphyllus, the bigleaf or garden lupine, is a stout perennial herb of the family Fabaceae growing 0.5 to 1.5 m tall from a thick rootstock. The leaves are palmately compound with nine to seventeen radiating, lance-shaped leaflets on long stalks, giving a handsome fan-like appearance. The flowers are pea-like and densely arranged in tall, showy terminal racemes up to 60 cm long, typically blue to violet but ranging to pink and white in cultivated forms; they are followed by hairy pods that split to eject the seeds. It flowers in early to mid summer. Native to western North America, it is widely grown as a garden ornamental and has naturalised across Europe and elsewhere. The plant contains toxic quinolizidine alkaloids and is poisonous to livestock and humans.