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Lupinus sparsiflorus; photograph author not stated, no rights reserved CC0author not stated, no rights reserved · observed growing wild · 2026-05-23

Lupinus sparsiflorus Benth.

Coulter's lupine; Mojave lupine

Fabaceae · Arizona, California +3

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Lupinus sparsiflorus, photograph (c) Matt Berger, some rights reserved (CC BY)Lupinus sparsiflorus, photograph author not stated, no rights reservedLupinus sparsiflorus, photograph author not stated, no rights reservedLupinus sparsiflorus, photograph author not stated, no rights reservedLupinus sparsiflorus, photograph author not stated, no rights reservedLupinus sparsiflorus, photograph author not stated, no rights reserved 95 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Cold floor (1 night in 100)
-2.0°C
Record low -7.7 °C in 44 years, at a typical spot in the range NASA POWER
Warmest month, mean daily high
36°C
Jul at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
331mm
5 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
20–54DLI
Lowest to highest month (DLI) CHELSA
The year in your months, northern hemisphere
  1. Jan
  2. Feb
  3. Mar
  4. Apr
  5. May
  6. Jun
  7. Jul
  8. Aug
  9. Sep
  10. Oct
  11. Nov
  12. Dec
Wet winters: the rain comes November to March and August, read as a winter growing season. rain rule, CHELSA
Northern hemisphere unless you set your site. The chart is in the habitat's months.

Summary

Lupinus sparsiflorus (Coulter's lupine) is a species of lupin native to North America. In the United States it occurs in California, Nevada, Arizona and Utah, and in Mexico it is found in Baja California and Sonora. Other common names include Mojave lupine, a name it shares with Lupinus odoratus.

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Lupinus sparsiflorus", CC BY-SA 4.0.

About the genus · Lupinus

Lupinus, commonly known as lupin, lupine, or regionally bluebonnet, is a genus of plants in the legume family Fabaceae. The genus includes over 199 species, with centres of diversity in North and South America. Smaller centres occur in North Africa and the Mediterranean. More on Wikipedia ›

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Lupinus", CC BY-SA 4.0.

Cultivation

Seasons

The rain rule reads a winter growing season: 70% of the median year's rain (202 mm of 279 mm) falls in November to March and August, cooler than the year (wet-season mean 14.9 °C against a yearly mean of 19.3 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: February and May to September.

Rain

279 mm in the median year at the habitat, 202 mm of it November to March and August. Wettest month February at 39 mm, driest month June at 2 mm; 1 month under 5 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 162 mm to 482 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 331 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 279 mm here is the median year's, the twelve monthly medians added, which the rain rule reads. Habitat calendar, northern hemisphere; median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA.

Light

Open sky over the habitat: 20 to 54 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 18, the highest 90th-percentile month 55).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is -2.0 °C, the absolute minimum -7.7 °C, 499 frost nights in 44 years, 11.3 a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 42.7 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 4.4 °C in December (across the grid cells of the range 1.6 °C to 7.5 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 35.5 °C in July (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: -2.0 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range (NASA POWER).

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 36 to 50% across the year (monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

How this section is made

Each card states this species' habitat figures with their sources, and what two fixed rules read from them; nothing here says what the plant does, wants or tolerates. The rules · the terms.

Seasons. Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the grid cells of the range: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve moves 4 °C or more and the habitat lies 10° or more from the equator. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain. CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the grid cells of the range. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light. CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.

Temperature. NASA POWER daily minima and maxima over 44 years at a typical spot in the range, lapse-corrected +108 m to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range. The cold floor is the 1st-percentile night named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity. CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the grid cells of the range.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat months, northern hemisphere

Habitat climate of Lupinus sparsiflorus through the yearWarmest month July, mean daily high 36 °C; coldest month December, mean nightly low 4.4 °C; 279 mm of rain in the median year (the twelve monthly medians added). Medians across the range, from CHELSA; the extremes at the edge from NASA POWER. Habitat months, northern hemisphere.-10°0°10°20°30°40°50°frost42.7° 99th-percentile day, NASA POWER-7.7° lowest night in 44 years, NASA POWER°C · day and nightcold quarter0255075100125mm rainDLI 20–54RH 36–50%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 622 habitat cells, CHELSA cold quarter: the three months around the coldest month's mean nightly low extremes over 44 years at a typical spot in the range, from NASA POWER, marked at the edge, in no month DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C17 / 13–1918 / 15–2121 / 17–2425 / 20–2930 / 23–3434 / 26–3936 / 28–4034 / 29–3932 / 28–3627 / 23–3021 / 18–2316 / 13–18
Night °C5 / 2–76 / 3–88 / 5–1011 / 7–1415 / 11–1920 / 14–2323 / 17–2722 / 18–2619 / 15–2314 / 11–168 / 5–114 / 2–8
Rain mm38 / 21–9239 / 22–10536 / 17–7013 / 5–326 / 2–102 / 1–719 / 1–6328 / 1–6917 / 6–3920 / 10–2824 / 11–4337 / 18–69
DLI22 / 20–2428 / 25–3037 / 35–3947 / 43–4852 / 49–5354 / 52–5549 / 46–5245 / 42–4840 / 39–4132 / 30–3424 / 22–2620 / 18–22
RH %50 / 46–5448 / 45–5645 / 41–5740 / 36–5637 / 34–5836 / 32–5844 / 38–5647 / 40–5645 / 39–5644 / 40–5445 / 42–5249 / 46–53
How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 622 grid cells holding the 1251 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. A dash is a month one or more of those cells has no figure for in the grid (a variable CHELSA does not carry there), so no median is taken rather than one over fewer cells. Extremes and elevation were read at a typical spot in the range, cell 1149:1377 (32.525, -111.125). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -7.7 °C, 1st-percentile night -2.0 °C, 99th-percentile day 42.7 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Across the range: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 622 distinct grid cells holding 1251 of the 1251 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1149:1377 (its coldest month's mean nightly low nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 32.50_-111.250, lapse-corrected +108 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 846 m (cell mean).

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP; the marker is where the records are densest and decides nothing: the climate was read across the cells of the in-range records placed well enough to read one, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeArizona, California, Nevada, Utah, Mexico Northwest · regions are the level-3 units of the World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions, as Kew's World Checklist records ranges, some under historical names such as Yugoslavia or Czechoslovakia (how).
Map marker33.484, -111.702 · in the densest population, 1048 records (60% of those in range)
Kew's description“annual” · “desert or dry shrubland” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 1754 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 1251 of them placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 548 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 9 km away. 1 record outside the WCVP native range not used. 503 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km, or with no stated accuracy (admitted only as a person's observation to three decimals), and stay on the map but off the climate.
How this section is made
The map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population inside the densest 2° block of the 1754 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Lupinus sparsiflorus, photograph 1did not loadLupinus sparsiflorus, photograph 2did not loadLupinus sparsiflorus, photograph 3did not loadLupinus sparsiflorus, photograph 4did not loadLupinus sparsiflorus, photograph 5did not loadLupinus sparsiflorus, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: (c) Matt Berger, some rights reserved (CC BY); author not stated, no rights reserved · CC0 (5).

Similar habitat climate The 6 nearest by mean daily high, mean nightly low and rain, month by month. How.

Crossosoma bigelovii Crossosoma bigelovii Bigelow's crossosoma Photo: CC BY, Matt BergerAmaranthus fimbriatus Amaranthus fimbriatus Amaranthaceae Photo: CC BY, Jo RobertsBahiopsis parishii Bahiopsis parishii Parish's goldeneye Photo: CC BY, Matt BergerPorophyllum gracile Porophyllum gracile Slender poreleaf Photo: CC BY, Matt BergerPsilostrophe cooperi Psilostrophe cooperi White-stem paper-flower Photo: CC BY, Bruce HartmanLepidium lasiocarpum Lepidium lasiocarpum Hairy-pod pepperwort Photo: CC BY-SA, Stan Shebs

Other Lupinus 56 in the reference

Lupinus albicaulis Lupinus albicaulis Sickle-keel lupine Photo: CC BY, ConquestLupinus albifrons Lupinus albifrons Silver lupine Photo: CC BY, Sarah DillionLupinus albus Lupinus albus White lupin Photo: CC BY, Umut Nuri ErdoğanLupinus altimontanus Lupinus altimontanus Fabaceae Photo: CC BY, Humber AlbertoLupinus ammophilus Lupinus ammophilus Sand lupine Photo: CC BY, Anders HastingsLupinus angustifolius Lupinus angustifolius Narrow-leaved lupin Photo: CC BY-SA, Tony RebeloLupinus arboreus Lupinus arboreus Tree lupin Photo: CC0, author not statedLupinus arbustus Lupinus arbustus Long-spurred lupine Photo: CC0, author not statedLupinus arcticus Lupinus arcticus Arctic lupine Photo: CC BY, Peter L AchuffLupinus argenteus Lupinus argenteus Silvery lupine Photo: CC0, author not statedLupinus arizonicus Lupinus arizonicus Arizona lupine Photo: CC BY, Matt BergerLupinus benthamii Lupinus benthamii Spider lupine Photo: CC BY, graham_coop all 57 ›

Names & registers

Also known as Lupinus sparsiflorus var. inopinatus; Lupinus sparsiflorus var. sparsiflorus. (GBIF Backbone)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataWikipediaiNaturalist

The record

Family
Fabaceae
Described by
Benth.
Native to
Arizona, California, Nevada +2
Wild records
1754 in range · 548 open

Every figure here is derived from public data by a stated rule and names its source; nothing about this species is written for its page by a person or by AI, apart from the marked, credited quotations. How →

Where this page came from built 2026-10-22
GBIF species record gbif.species answeredasked 2026-10-22
GBIF synonyms gbif.synonyms answeredasked 2026-10-22
GBIF common names gbif.vernacular answeredasked 2026-10-22names fetched 2026-10-22
WCVP native range wcvp.distribution answeredas of 2026-06-04
GBIF occurrence records gbif.occurrences answeredas of 2026-10-21GBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.hbdw64, of 2026-10-21; 14 records within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (13 at a botanic garden or arboretum, 1 at a zoo; Wikidata's list)
Habitat climate climate answeredasked 2026-10-22
Daily extremes (NASA POWER) climate.extremes answeredasked 2026-10-22NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 32.50_-111.250, lapse-corrected +108 m at 6.5 °C/km
Wikidata wikidata answeredasked 2026-10-22IPNI and POWO linked by Kew's number for Lupinus sparsiflorus Benth. (the item's: IPNI 505103-1, POWO 505102-1)
Wikipedia wikipedia answeredasked 2026-10-22
iNaturalist photographs, wild inat.photos.wild answeredasked 2026-10-22from iNaturalist's open data of 2026-09-27: research-grade observations with an open-licence photograph, the 24 whose photographs iNaturalist received last (the open data holds no votes); filled 2026-10-22
iNaturalist photographs, cultivated inat.photos.cultivated not asked
GBIF media gbif.media answeredasked 2026-10-22
OpenAlex papers openalex not askednot yet asked for this reference; a later fill takes the papers from OpenAlex's snapshot

Every source is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, refused, failed, not been asked, or answered twice where one answer is taken (“not taken: two items answered”), and, for a source asked when this page was built, when: the figures are as the source held them that day; a source read from a file (Kew's World Checklist, a GBIF download) says "as of" the file's day instead; a row carried from an earlier build of the page names that build instead. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 65 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

Cultifolio

Opening your plants…