The Charm Of "wolf Beans" - Lupine

2024 Author: Gavin MacAdam | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:38

This is one of the most unpretentious and ornate plants for the garden. Its brightly colored tails can often be found on backyards and in front of the facades of city buildings. But in addition to its decorative properties, lupine can have a beneficial effect on the condition of the soil and, thereby, on neighboring plants, as well as serve as food for animals and even as a medicine

With the name - some myths

There are many stories associated with the name of this flower. But most often you can hear that its name comes from the Latin Lupus - wolf. The reasons for this are, firstly, the presence of bitter, poisonous substances in its beans, and secondly, its amazing adaptability to almost any conditions. Now in the world the number of species of the genus Lupine reaches about 2000. And it all began 4000 years ago in the days of Ancient Egypt, when people cultivated only white lupine, using it as feed for livestock and fertilizer for the soil.

This perennial came to Europe from North America at the beginning of the twentieth century. And in Russia, lupine grew for a long time only in the southern regions, but thanks to the achievements of domestic breeders in 1982, we got the first official plant variety that was suitable for growing in the middle zone of the country. True, in the 90s they forgot a little about him, not honoring him with the honor of cultivating on an industrial scale. Now the situation has changed, and in 2012 they sowed almost 5,000 hectares of land.

Roots deeply

The plant is decorative both with flowers and leaves. A long, massive raceme with cute blue-violet, pink, yellow or white flowers forms on an erect, sturdy stem (there are other shades, including two-tone varieties). In some varieties, the flower cluster grows up to one meter, while others may have short and wide inflorescences. The flowers have five petals: a large upper one - "sail" or "flag", two small ones on the sides - "wings" and two small lower ones, fused with a "boat". The center of the flower is decorated with a bright pistil with ten stamens.

The charming tassels of the lupine are surrounded by equally attractive palmate leaves. The root of the plant, like all members of the legume family, is pivotal and quite powerful. Often its length reaches two meters. Penetrating deep into the soil, it transfers nutrients from the bowels of the earth to the upper layer of the soil. Large seeds of a plant are formed in legume pods, which dry, as a rule, unevenly, from which they curl into spirals, and then with natural force the seeds from them are thrown out.

Easy to sow

In the middle zone of the Russian Federation, lupine usually blooms in June, and its bright tassels can delight others right up to late autumn. Within 3-4 years, the plant blooms and develops remarkably, but after that it is recommended to replace it with new specimens. Moreover, it is not difficult to grow them. Lupins are propagated by seeds.

Sowing is carried out in April, after the snow melts on slightly shaded beds, or in room boxes on the northern windowsills. Newborn sprouts are transplanted in May to the main places. A flower bed can be formed only from lupines of different shades (at a distance of 40 cm), although they are good friends with other flowers (for example, with irises, phlox, delphiniums, etc.).

If you want to preserve especially decorative varieties, they can be propagated vegetatively. To do this, after flowering lupine, its renewal buds (at the base of the stem) are cut off along with pieces of the root and transplanted into a shaded place. The roots of the cuttings should appear somewhere in a month, then they can be safely transplanted back into the flower garden.

Modest and helpful

You do not need to pay special attention to the care of the plant. It is enough to periodically loosen and weed the soil, and in the second year of his life it is useful to feed him with a potassium-phosphorus composition. Lupine grows best on slightly acidic, loamy soils.

Despite its unpretentiousness, lupine is quite "hardworking" and useful, as it regularly enriches the soil. In this he is helped by small spherical swellings that are on the roots of the plant. The bacteria contained in them are able to bind free nitrogen, filling the earth with them. Back in the first century AD, people knew that lupine can easily replace manure and ennoble entire fields of vineyards and corn fields. In autumn, often mown lupine greens are plowed into the soil (by 10-15 cm) as a good fertilizer for it.