Lupinus palaestinus Seeds | Palestine Lupin
LATIN NAME: Lupinus palaestinus
COMMON NAME: Palestine Lupin
Plant Profile
Palestine Lupin is a tall, handsome annual of the pea family from the eastern Mediterranean, growing up to a metre with bold, palmate leaves of seven to nine leaflets and dense, upright spikes of pea flowers in soft blues and whites, opening from the bottom of the spike upward in early summer.
It grows in dry fields, open pine woodland edges and sandy ground in its home range, and in the garden it stands taller and bolder than its Mediterranean cousins, a plant for the back of the dry border. Bees work the spikes as long as they last. The flower spikes open in a long, unhurried sequence, bottom to top, so a plant in good condition holds fresh colour for three weeks or more.
Science & Biotechnology
The species belongs to the Old World annual lupins and appears in taxonomic and agronomic work on the group, its seed chemistry and nitrogen-fixing performance studied alongside the commercially grown Mediterranean species.
Its adaptation to arid spring conditions has drawn ecological interest, since it completes its cycle on the moisture of one winter and dries off before the worst heat, a rhythm breeders of dryland lupins study closely. Ecologists studying eastern Mediterranean annual grasslands record it as a component of the dry-field flora, its life cycle timed to the region’s brief, moist spring. Herbarium work on the species traces its range from coastal plain to hill forest edge, and its habitat breadth is wider than its garden reputation suggests.
Uses & Benefits
In the garden it is a bold annual for the dry, sunny border: tall spikes, big soft leaves, and a presence that holds the middle of the bed for a season.
Like all lupins its seeds carry alkaloids and serve the soil rather than the table, and the nitrogen it leaves behind is the quiet, practical gift of the species. In the cut-flower border the spikes last several days in water if cut with the morning dew still on them, a small trick that earns the species a place in the picking garden.
Growing from Seed
Scarify the hard seeds and soak overnight, then sow in autumn where they are to flower, an inch deep in light, well-drained soil; a winter in the ground suits the species.
Thin to a wide spacing, water only in establishment, and let the spikes finish; shake the pods over the bed in early summer and the plant will renew itself where the ground stays lean and sunny. Where the soil is heavy, add sand to the drill; the species germinates fine but resents a wet winter crown more than any other condition. Stake the tallest plants in exposed gardens; a single summer gale can lay a metre-high lupin flat a week before it would have flowered.
Our Take
The tall blue lupin of the eastern Mediterranean’s dry spring: bold leaves, dense spikes, and a season that ends before the heat. Sow in autumn into lean ground.
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