LUPIN or LUPINE, in botany, a genus, Lupinus, of about 150 species of annual and perennial herbaceous plants of the tribe Genisteae, of the family Leguminosae. Species with digitate leaves range along the west side of America from British Columbia to northern Chile, while a few occur in the Mediterranean regions. A few others with entire leaves are found in Brazil and eastern North America. The leaves are remarkable for "sleeping" in three different ways. From being in the form of a horizontal star by day, the leaflets either fall and form a hollow cone with their bases upwards (L. pilosus), or rise and the cone is inverted (L. luteus), or else the shorter leaflets fall and the longer rise, and so together form a vertical star as in many species ; the ad vantage in every case being apparently a protection of the sur faces of the leaflets from radiation and consequent wetting with dew. The flowers are of the usual "papilionaceous" or pea-like form, blue, white, purple or yellow, in long terminal spikes. The
stamens are monadelphous and bear dimorphic anthers. The spe cies of which earliest mention is made is probably L. Termis, which was cultivated by the ancient Egyptians. It is wild in some parts of the Mediterranean area and is extensively cultivated in Egypt. Its seeds are eaten by the poor after being steeped in water to remove their bitterness. The lupine of the ancient Greeks and Romans was probably L. albus, which is still extensively culti vated in Italy, Sicily and other Mediterranean countries for forage, for ploughing in to enrich the land, and for its round flat seeds, which form an article of food. Yellow lupine (L. luteus) and blue lupine (L. angustifolius) are also cultivated on the European continent as farm crops for green manuring.