Lupin Totally Explained

Everything about Lupin totally explained

Lupin, often spelled lupine in North America, is the common name for members of the genus Lupinus in the legume family (Fabaceae). The genus comprises between 200-600 species, with major centers of diversity in South America and western North America - subgen.Platycarpos

) and subgen. Lupinus

- in the Mediterranean region and Africa. The species are mostly herbaceous perennial plants 0.3-1.5 m (1-5 ft) tall, but some are annual plants and a few are shrubs up to 3 m (10 ft) tall - see also bush lupin -, with one species (Lupinus jaimehintoniana, from the Mexican state of Oaxaca) a tree up to 8 m high with a trunk 20 cm (8 in) in diameter. They have a characteristic and easily recognised leaf shape, with soft green to grey-green leaves which in many species bear silvery hairs, often densely so. The leaf blades are usually palmately divided into 5–28 leaflets or reduced to a single leaflet in a few species of the southeastern United States. The flowers are produced in dense or open whorls on an erect spike, each flower 1-2 cm long, with a typical peaflower shape with an upper 'standard', two lateral 'wings' and two lower petals fused as a 'keel'. Due to the flower shape, several species are known as bluebonnets or quaker bonnets. The fruit is a pod containing several seeds.
Like most members of their family, lupins can fix nitrogen from the atmosphere into ammonia, fertilizing the soil for other plants. The genus Lupinus is nodulated by Bradyrhizobium soil bacteria. Some species have a long central tap roots or proteoid roots.
Lupins contain significant amounts of certain secondary compounds like isoflavones and toxic alkaloids, for example lupinine.

Cultivation and uses

The yellow legume seeds of lupins, commonly called lupin beans, were quite popular with the Romans and they spread the cultivation of them throughout the Roman Empire; hence common names like lupini in Romance languages. Lupin beans are commonly sold in a salty solution in jars (like olives and pickles) and can be eaten with or without the skin. Lupins are also cultivated as forage and grain legumes.
   Today, lupini dishes are most commonly found in Mediterranean countries, especially in Portugal, Egypt, and Italy, and also in Brazil and in Spanish Harlem, where they're popularly consumed with beer. The Andean variety of this bean is from the Andean Lupin (tarwi, L. mutabilis) and was a widespread food in the Incan Empire. The Andean Lupin and the Mediterranean L. albus (White Lupin), L. angustifolius (Blue Lupin) and Lupinus hirsutus are also edible after soaking the seeds for some days in salted water. They are known as altramuz in Spain and Argentina. In Portuguese the lupin beans are known as tremoços, and in Antalya (Turkey) as tirmis. Lupins were also used by Native Americans in North America, for example the Yavapai people.
   These lupins are referred to as sweet lupins because they contain smaller amounts of toxic alkaloids than the bitter lupin varieties. Newly bred variants of sweet lupins are grown extensively in Germany; they lack any bitter taste and require no soaking in salt solution. The seeds are used for different foods from vegan sausages to lupin-tofu or baking-enhancing lupin flour. Given that lupin seeds have the full range of essential amino acids and that they, contrary to soy, can be grown in more temperate to cool climates, lupins are becoming increasingly recognized as a cash crop alternative to soy. Lupin milk is a milk substitute made from lupin protein.
   Three Mediterranean species of lupin, Blue Lupin, White Lupin and Yellow Lupin (L. luteus) are widely cultivated for livestock and poultry feed. Both sweet and bitter lupins in feed can cause livestock poisoning. Lupin poisoning is a nervous syndrome caused by alkaloids in bitter lupins, similar to neurolathyrism. Mycotoxic lupinosis is a disease caused by lupin material that's infected with the fungus Diaporthe toxica; the fungus produces mycotoxins called phomopsins, which cause liver damage.
   On 22 December 2006, the European Commission submitted directive 2006/142/EC, which amends the EU foodstuff allergen list to include "lupin and products thereof".

Horticulture and ecology

Lupins are popular ornamental plants in gardens. There are numerous hybrids and cultivars. Some species, such as Garden Lupin (Lupinus polyphyllus) and hybrids like the Rainbow Lupin (L. × regalis) are common garden flowers. Others, such as the Yellow Bush Lupin (L. arboreus) are considered invasive weeds when they appear outside their native range.
In New Zealand lupins have escaped into the wild and grow in large numbers along main roads and streams on the South Island. The seeds are carried by car tires and water flow, and unfortunately, some tourist shops in the major tourist areas have been reported to have sold packets of lupin seeds, with the instructions to plant, water and watch them grow into a giant beanstalk. They are usually Garden Lupins, principally blue, pink and violet, with some yellow, and are very attractive, providing colourful vistas with a backdrop of mountains and lakes; however, they smother the original vegetation. The New Zealand environment authorities have a campaign to reduce their numbers, although this seems a hopeless task, especially when faced with such ignorance as mentioned above. In fields they seem to be eradicated by sheep, and hence remain largely restricted to ungrazed roadside verges and stream banks.
For several Lepidoptera (butterflies and moths), lupins are an important larval food. These include:

Callophrys irus (Frosted Elfin)
Chesias legatella (The Streak)
Chionodes braunella
Glaucopsyche xerces (Xerces Blue) - extinct
Icaricia icarioides missionensis (Mission Blue)

The endangered Lange's Metalmark (Apodemia mormo langei) mates on Silver Bush Lupin (L. albifrons).
The most significant diseases of lupins are anthracnose as well as wilting and root rot diseases caused by Fusarium and other pathogens, and some bacterial and viral diseases.

Selected species

Lupinus albicaulis – Sickle-keel Lupin

Lupinus albifrons – Silver Bush Lupin

Lupinus albus – White Lupin

Lupinus × alpestris

Lupinus angustifolius – Blue Lupin or Narrowleaf Lupin

Lupinus arboreus – Yellow Bush Lupin or Tree Lupin

Lupinus arbustus – Longspur Lupin

Lupinus arcticus – Arctic Lupin

Lupinus argenteus – Silvery Lupin

Lupinus argenteus var. palmeri

Lupinus aridorum – Scrub Lupin

Lupinus arizonicus – Arizona Lupin

Lupinus benthamii

Lupinus bicolor – Miniature Lupin, Bicolor Lupin or Lindley's (Annual) Lupin

Lupinus bingenensis – Bingen Lupin

Lupinus burkei – Burke's Lupin

Lupinus caespitosus – Stemless Dwarf Lupin

Lupinus caudatus – Kellogg's Spurred Lupin

Lupinus chamissonis – Chamisso Bush Lupin

Lupinus concinnus

Lupinus cosentinii

Lupinus diffusus – Spreading Lupin, Oak Ridge Lupin or Sky-blue Lupin

Lupinus excubitus – Grape Soda Lupin

Lupinus foliolosus

Lupinus formosus – Summer Lupin

Lupinus havardii

Lupinus hirsutus

Lupinus hirsutissimus

Lupinus jaimehintoniana

Lupinus kuntii

Lupinus kuschei – Yukon Lupin

Lupinus latifolius – Broadleaf Lupin

Lupinus latifolius var. barbatus – Klamath Lupin or Bearded Lupin

Lupinus lepidus – Prairie Lupin

Lupinus leucophyllus – Woolly-leaf Lupin

Lupinus littoralis – Seashore Lupin

Lupinus longifolius – Longleaf Bush Lupin

Lupinus luteus – Yellow Lupin

Lupinus lyallii – Lyall's Lupin

Lupinus macbrideanus

Lupinus michelianus

Lupinus micranthus

Lupinus microcarpus – Wide-bannered Lupin or Chick Lupin

Lupinus microcarpus var. densiflorus – Dense-flowered Lupin

Lupinus minimus – Kettle Falls Lupin

Lupinus mutabilis – Andean Lupin, Pearl Lupin, South American Lupin, tarwi/tarhui or chocho

Lupinus nanus – Dwarf Lupin, Field Lupin, Sky Lupin or Douglas' Annual Lupin

Lupinus niveus

Lupinus nootkatensis – Nootka Lupin

Lupinus nubigenus

Lupinus odoratus – Royal Mojave Lupin

Lupinus oreganus – Oregon Lupin

Lupinus parviflorus – Lodgepole Lupin

Lupinus peirsonii – Peirson's Lupin

Lupinus perennis – Wild Perennial Lupin, Sundial Lupin, Indian beet or Old maid's bonnets

Lupinus plattensis

Lupinus polycarpus – Smallflower Lupin

Lupinus polyphyllus – Largeleaf Lupin, Bigleaf Lupin, Garden Lupin or Russell Lupin

Lupinus prunophilus – Hairy Bigleaf Lupin

Lupinus pusillus – Small Lupin

Lupinus × regalis – Rainbow Lupin

Lupinus rivularis – Riverbank Lupin

Lupinus rupestris

Lupinus sericeus – Pursh's Silky Lupin

Lupinus smithianus

Lupinus sparsiflorus – Desert Lupin, Coulter's Lupin or Mojave Lupin

Lupinus stiversii

Lupinus subcarnosus – "Buffalo clover"

Lupinus succulentus – Succulent Lupin, Arroyo Lupin or Hollowleaf Annual Lupin

Lupinus sulphureus – Sulphur Lupin or Sulphur-flower Lupin

Lupinus sulphureus ssp. kincaidii – Kincaid's Lupin; formerly in L. oreganus

Lupinus texensis – Texas Bluebonnet

Lupinus tidestromii – Tidestrom's Lupin

Lupinus vallicola – Open Lupin

Lupinus variicolor – Varied Lupin

Lupinus villosus

Lupinus wyethii – Wyeth's Lupin

Lupins in popular culture

Bluebonnet lupins, notably the Texas Bluebonnet (Lupinus texensis) are the state flower of Texas, USA.

A Monty Python sketch featured a would-be Robin Hood named Dennis Moore, who stole lupins from the rich and gave them to the poor. Although he was very successful, the poor argued that money or food would be more practical.

The lupin has also lent its name to Arsène Lupin, the main character in a series of stories by Maurice Leblanc (the name is a parody of Edgar Allan Poe's C. Auguste Dupin). He was a gentleman thief who first appeared in 1905. The popular Japanese comic book/Anime character Lupin III is an unofficial spin-off of this series.

In the British adventure series The Avengers, in the episode Who's Who it's revealed the British Secret Service gives their agents code name based on flowers worn on the lapel (for example "Tulip", "Daffodil", "Rose"). Though he's only seen dead, one agent is clearly wearing a lupin.

In the children's book Miss Rumphius by Barbara Cooney, the protagonist plants lupins to make the world a more beautiful place.

In the Colin Hopper novel The Eye of the Wall the main characters are served lupin stew.

In the Japanese magical girl anime Ojamajo Doremi, the character Onpu Segawa frequently sings a lullaby titled Lupinus no Komoriuta ("Lullaby of the Lupins") to baby Hana Makihatayama during season 2.

As a first name, "Lupin" is used in two famous works of fiction. In George Grossmith's comic novel The Diary of a Nobody, the protagonists' son is named Lupin, and in J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter series, Harry has a friend and teacher named Remus Lupin, who is a werewolf.Further Information

Get more info on 'Lupin'.

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