Lupinus sulphureus is a species of lupin

Lupin

Lupinus, commonly known as Lupins or lupines , is a genus in the legume family . The genus comprises about 280 species , with major centers of diversity in South and western North America , and the Andes and secondary centers in the Mediterranean region and Africa Lupinus, commonly known as Lupins...

e native to western North America

North America

North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...

 from southern British Columbia

British Columbia

British Columbia is the westernmost of Canada's provinces and is known for its natural beauty, as reflected in its Latin motto, Splendor sine occasu . Its name was chosen by Queen Victoria in 1858...

 south through Washington to Oregon

Oregon

Oregon is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It is located on the Pacific coast, with Washington to the north, California to the south, Nevada on the southeast and Idaho to the east. The Columbia and Snake rivers delineate much of Oregon's northern and eastern...

. It is a perennial

Perennial plant

A perennial plant or simply perennial is a plant that lives for more than two years. The term is often used to differentiate a plant from shorter lived annuals and biennials. The term is sometimes misused by commercial gardeners or horticulturalists to describe only herbaceous perennials...

 herbaceous

Herbaceous

A herbaceous plant is a plant that has leaves and stems that die down at the end of the growing season to the soil level. They have no persistent woody stem above ground...

 plant growing to 40-80 cm tall. The leaves

Leaf

A leaf is an organ of a vascular plant, as defined in botanical terms, and in particular in plant morphology. Foliage is a mass noun that refers to leaves as a feature of plants....

 are palmately compound, with 7-13 leaflets, the leaflets 2-5 cm long. The flower

Flower

A flower, sometimes known as a bloom or blossom, is the reproductive structure found in flowering plants . The biological function of a flower is to effect reproduction, usually by providing a mechanism for the union of sperm with eggs...

s are produced in whorls on a spike 12-20 cm long.

There are three subspecies

Subspecies

Subspecies in biological classification, is either a taxonomic rank subordinate to species, ora taxonomic unit in that rank . A subspecies cannot be recognized in isolation: a species will either be recognized as having no subspecies at all or two or more, never just one...

:

• Lupinus sulphureus subsp. kincaidii (Kincaid's Lupine; syn. L. oreganus subsp. kincaidii). Willamette Valley
  Willamette Valley
  The Willamette Valley is the most populated region in the state of Oregon of the United States. Located in the state's northwest, the region is surrounded by tall mountain ranges to the east, west and south and the valley's floor is broad, flat and fertile because of Ice Age conditions...
  
   of Western Oregon as well as parts of South Western Washington. Flowers purple. Threatened
  Endangered Species Act
  The Endangered Species Act of 1973 is one of the dozens of United States environmental laws passed in the 1970s. Signed into law by President Richard Nixon on December 28, 1973, it was designed to protect critically imperiled species from extinction as a "consequence of economic growth and...
  
  .
• Lupinus sulphureus subsp. subsaccatus. Southern British Columbia south to Oregon. Flowers yellow.
• Lupinus sulphureus subsp. sulphureus. Eastern Washington and eastern Oregon. Flowers yellow.

Kincaid's Lupine is threatened in the wild. Fender's blue butterfly

Fender's blue butterfly

Fender's blue is an endangered subspecies of butterfly found only in the Willamette Valley of northwestern Oregon, United States. The species was first noticed in the 1920s but wasn't scientifically documented and named until 1931 by biologist Ralph Macy...

, an endangered species, needs this subspecies to survive. Its larvae eat the leaves during the fall then crawl down the stem and hide among the roots during the mild winters. In spring, the larvae re-emerge and eat more leaves then form cocoons. They metamorphasize and come out as the adult with brilliant blue wings.