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Lupinus

Lupinus
Mainelupin.jpg
sundial lupine (Lupinus perennis)
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Plantae
(unranked): Angiosperms
(unranked): Eudicots
(unranked): Rosids
Order: Fabales
Family: Fabaceae
Subfamily: Faboideae
Tribe: Genisteae
Subtribe: Lupininae
Genus: Lupinus
L.
Type species
Lupinus albus L.
Subgenera
  • Lupinus
  • Platycarpos (S.Wats) Kurl.
New World lupins
Lupinusdensiflorusaureus.jpg
The flowers of Lupinus densiflorus
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Plantae
(unranked): Angiosperms
(unranked): Eudicots
(unranked): Rosids
Order: Fabales
Family: Fabaceae
Subfamily: Faboideae
Tribe: Genisteae
Genus: Lupinus
Subgenus: Platycarpos
(S.Wats.) Kurl. 1989
Type species
Lupinus densiflorus Benth.
Species

ca. 500; see text.

Synonyms
  • Platycarpos S.Wats. 1873
  • Platycarpos Aschers. et Graebn. 1907
Old World lupins
Lupinus albus flower.JPG
The flowers of Lupinus albus
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Plantae
(unranked): Angiosperms
(unranked): Eudicots
(unranked): Rosids
Order: Fabales
Family: Fabaceae
Subfamily: Faboideae
Tribe: Genisteae
Genus: Lupinus
Subgenus: Lupinus
S.Wats.
Type species
Lupinus albus L.
Species

12; see text.

Synonyms
  • Eulupinus Aschers. & Graebn. 1907

Lupinus, commonly known as lupin or lupine (North America), is a genus of flowering plants in the legume family, Fabaceae. The genus includes over 200 species, with centers of diversity in North and South America. Smaller centers occur in North Africa and the Mediterranean. Seeds of various species of lupins have been used as a food for over 3000 years around the Mediterranean and for as much as 6000 years in the Andean highland (Uauy et al., 1995), but they have never been accorded the same status as soybeans or dry peas and other pulse crops. The pearl lupin of the Andean highlands of South America, Lupinus mutabilis, known locally as tarwi or chocho, was extensively cultivated, but no conscious genetic improvement other than to select for larger and water-permeable seeds seems to have been made. Users soaked the seed in running water to remove most of the bitter alkaloids and then cooked or toasted the seeds to make them edible, or else boiled and dried them to make kirku. Spanish domination led to a change in the eating habits of the indigenous peoples, and only recently has interest in using lupins as a food been renewed.

The species are mostly herbaceous perennial plants 0.3–1.5 m (0.98–4.92 ft) tall, but some are annual plants and a few are shrubs up to 3 m (9.8 ft) tall. An exception is the chamis de monte (Lupinus jaimehintoniana) of Oaxaca in Mexico, which is a tree up to 8 m (26 ft) tall. Lupins have soft green to grey-green leaves which may be coated in silvery hairs, often densely so. The leaf blades are usually palmately divided into five to 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. The pea-like flowers have an upper standard, or banner, two lateral wings, and two lower petals fused into a keel. The flower shape has inspired common names such as bluebonnets and quaker bonnets. The fruit is a pod containing several seeds.


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Wikipedia

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