Lupinus

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Lupinus
Wild Perennial Lupin
(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.
Species

See text
Lupinus pilosus, Israel.

Lupinus, commonly known as lupin or lupine (North America), is a genus of flowering plants in the legume family (Fabaceae). The genus comprises about 280 species (Hughes), with major centers of diversity in South and Western North America (Subgen. Platycarpos (Wats.) Kurl.), parts of the Southern Hemisphere (New Zealand and parts of Australia) and the Andes and secondary centers in the Mediterranean region and Africa (Subgen. Lupinus).[1][2]

Contents

Description [edit]

The species are mostly herbaceous perennial plants 0.3–1.5 m (0.98–4.9 ft) tall, but some are annual plants and a few are shrubs up to 3 m (9.8 ft) tall with one species (Lupinus jaimehintoniana from the Mexican state of Oaxaca) up to 8 m (26 ft) high with a trunk 20 cm (7.9 in) in diameter. They have a characteristic and easily recognized 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' or 'banner', 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.

Usage [edit]

Culinary [edit]

The yellow legume seeds of lupins, commonly called lupin beans, were popular with the Romans, who spread the plant's cultivation throughout the Roman Empire; hence common names like lupini in Romance languages. The name 'Lupin' derives from the Latin word lupinus (meaning "of or belonging to a wolf" [3]), and was given with regard to the fact that many found that the plant has a tendency to ravage the land on which it grows. The peas, which appear after the flowering period, were also said to be fit only for the consumption of wolves. Lupin beans are commonly sold in a salty solution in jars (like olives and pickles) and can be eaten with or without the skin.

Lupini dishes are most commonly found in Mediterranean countries, especially in Portugal, Egypt, and Italy, and also in Brazil. In Portugal, Spain and Spanish Harlem they are popularly consumed with beer. In Lebanon, salty and chilled Lupini Beans are called "Termos" and are served pre-meal as part of an aperitif. 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),[4] and Lupinus hirsutus[5] are also edible after soaking the seeds for some days in salted water.[6] Lupins were also used by many Native American people such as the Yavapai people in North America. Lupins are known as altramuz in Spain and Argentina. In Portuguese the lupin beans are known as tremoços and in Antalya (Turkey) as tirmis.[verification needed] Edible 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.

Agriculture [edit]

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.

Three Mediterranean species of lupin, Blue Lupin, White Lupin, and L. luteus (yellow lupin) are widely cultivated for livestock and poultry feed.

Lupins are also cultivated as forage and grain legumes. Like most members of their family, lupins can fix nitrogen from the atmosphere into ammonia via a rhizobium-root nodule symbiosis, fertilizing the soil for other plants. This adaption allows lupins to be tolerant of infertile soils and capable of pioneering change in barren and poor quality soils. The genus Lupinus is nodulated by Bradyrhizobium soil bacteria.[7] Some species have a long central tap roots, or have proteoid roots.

Companion plant [edit]

Ornamental lupins, Ushuaia

Lupins make good companion plants for crops that need significant amounts of nitrogen in their soil and can be intercropped properly, like cucumbers, squash, broccoli, and spinach.

Horticulture [edit]

Lupin population, Lake Tekapo, New Zealand

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 Lupinus polyphyllus have escaped into the wild and grow in large numbers along main roads and streams on the South Island. Although considered attractive by some it is also seen as an invasive species. A similar spread of the species has occurred in Finland after the non-native species was first deliberately planted alongside main roads as part of the road landscaping. Lupins have been planted in some parts of Australia with a considerably cooler climate, particularly in rural Victoria and New South Wales.

Ecology [edit]

Canadian tiger swallowtail on wild lupine, Gatineau, Quebec

For several Lepidoptera (butterflies and moths), lupins are an important larval food. These include:

The endangered Apodemia mormo langei (Lange's Metalmark) 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.[13]

Potential harms [edit]

Lupins contain significant amounts of certain secondary compounds like isoflavones and toxic alkaloids, e.g. lupinine and sparteine. 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".

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 is infected with the fungus Diaporthe toxica;[14] the fungus produces mycotoxins called phomopsins, which cause liver damage. Poisonous lupin seeds cause annually the loss of many cattle and sheep on western American Ranges.[15]

People with peanut allergy should generally avoid lupins. In one study[16] 44% of people with peanut allergy had a positive allergy test for lupin allergy and 7 of 8 who had a positive test and were fed lupin as part of a study reacted to this food.

Taxonomy [edit]

Lupin and other wildflowers cover the mountaintop of Raspberry Island (Alaska)
Lupinus flavoculatus
Close up of a Russell Hybrid lupin (Lupinus polyphyllus) in a typical garden setting, UK, England
Lupinus texensis, state flower of Texas
Lupinus in Hokkaido Japan.

Overall the taxonomy of this genus has been traditionally confusing. The last major monograph, by Agardh in 1835 recognised 83 species, yet about 1800 names are in use.(Hughes) Some of the most recent phylogenetics indicates the presence of 13 Old World species, where the genus is thought to have originated, and two groups of New World species. The smaller of these two clades comprises c. 35 species distributed largely in the Eastern lowlands, and the larger of c. 222 in Western highland regions.(Hughes)[17]

History [edit]

Watson (1873) originally divided the genus Lupinus into three sections, Platycarpos, Lupinus and Lupinellus based on habitat and the number of ovules. Most of the species found in the Americas were assigned to Lupinus. Platycarpos consisted of some annuals with two ovules and two seeds (e.g., L. densiflorus, L. micricarpus), while Lupinellus had only one species (L. uncialis).

While Watson's work was predominantly based on study of N American species, the later research of Ascherson and Graebner (1907) was more global. They described two subgenera, Eulupinus and Platycarpos using similar criteria. Most species fell into the subgenus Eulupinus, while Platycarpos included the annual species from the Eastern Hemisphere in Watson's classification.

Current schema (Kurlovich and Stankevich 2002) retain this distinction but use the nomenclature for the subgenera of Platycarpos and Lupinus. In this schema Subgen. Platycarpos (Wats.) Kurl. contains perennial and annual species from the Western hemisphere, two or more ovules. Subgen. Lupinus consists of eleven species from Africa and the mediterranean, with a minimum of ovules or seedbuds.

Subgenus Platycarpos (circa 270 species) [edit]

(Wats.) Kurl., comb.nova. - §2. Platycarpos Wats. 1873, Proc. Amer. Acad. Arts Sci. 8:522; B. Platycarpos Aschers. et Graebn. 1907, Mitteleurop. Fl. 6,2:232. - §1. Lupinus Wats. 1873, Proc. Amer. Acad. Arts Sci. 8:522, p.p.; A. Eulupinus Aschers. et Graebn. 1907, Mitteleurop. Fl. 6,2:221 p.p. (New World’s or flat-fruited lupins)[1]

Selected species

Subgenus Lupinus (11 species) [edit]

Blue Lupin (L. angustifolius)
Lupinus pilosus, Judean Foothills, Israel

A. Eulupinus Aschers. et Graebn. 1907, Mitteleurop. Fl. 6,2:221, p.p. (Old World Lupins)[1]

Symbolic uses [edit]

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

See also [edit]

Footnotes [edit]

  1. ^ a b c "Classification of Lupins". Lupins: Geography, classification, genetic resources and breeding. Personal.inet.fi. Retrieved 2012-08-04. 
  2. ^ Ainouche & Bayer (1999)
  3. ^ William Whitaker's Words, [1], accessed 2012-11-29
  4. ^ Murcia & Hoyos (1998)
  5. ^ Hedrick (1919): 387-388
  6. ^ Azcoytia, Carlos: Historia de los altramuces. Un humilde aperitivo. [in Spanish]
  7. ^ Kurlovich et al. (2002)
  8. ^ a b Only known from Sundial Lupin (L. perennis)
  9. ^ a b c Endangered[citation needed]
  10. ^ Recorded on Yellow Bush Lupin (L. arboreus)
  11. ^ Only known from Silver Bush Lupin (L. albifrons), Summer Lupin (L. formosus), and Varied Lupin (L. variicolor)
  12. ^ Feeds exclusively on Lupinus species
  13. ^ Golubev & Kurlovich (2002)
  14. ^ Williamson et al. (1994)
  15. ^ Hutchins, R. E. 1965. The Amazing Seed. New York: Dodd, Mead & Company.
  16. ^ USA (2012-05-24). "Cross-allergenicity of peanut and lup... [J Allergy Clin Immunol. 1999] - PubMed - NCBI". Ncbi.nlm.nih.gov. Retrieved 2012-08-04. 
  17. ^ "Lupinus". Personal.inet.fi. Retrieved 2012-08-04. 

References [edit]

External links [edit]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Lupinus
Wikispecies has information related to: Lupinus
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