Lupinus caudatusKellogg

tailcup lupine

WFO wfo-0000174702 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC0 / CC BY / CC BY-SA

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 6 observations

This species has been photographed under an open licence only 6 times, so some figures below are different views of the same plant, taken on the same day, rather than different individuals. They are usually different parts of it: the leaf, the flower, the bark.

Lupinus caudatus, photographed by Craig Martin
fig. a Craig Martin, CC0 1.0 / 2020-05-30 / obs. 76017292
Lupinus caudatus, photographed by John Brew
fig. b John Brew, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 5047402
Lupinus caudatus, photographed by Tom Wainwright
fig. c Tom Wainwright, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 79044544
Lupinus caudatus, photographed by Tom Wainwright
fig. d Tom Wainwright, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 76461837
Lupinus caudatus, photographed by Craig Martin
fig. e Craig Martin, CC0 1.0 / obs. 75966046
Lupinus caudatus, photographed by Craig Martin
fig. f Craig Martin, CC0 1.0 / obs. 53885618
Lupinus caudatus, photographed by Craig Martin
fig. g Craig Martin, CC0 1.0 / obs. 72329581
Lupinus caudatus, photographed by John Brew
fig. h John Brew, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 5047418

Every figure is a research-grade observation under CC0, CC BY or CC BY-SA, rehosted with the photographer’s name, the licence and the observation it came from. Photographs under a NonCommercial licence are excluded from this site and are never stored, which costs us a great many pictures and is not negotiable.

Native range 11 botanical countries

Regions where Lupinus caudatus is native: Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oregon, Utah, Wyoming ArizonaCaliforniaColoradoIdahoMontanaNevadaNew MexicoNorth DakotaOregonUtahWyoming
Native distribution of Lupinus caudatus, after Kew’s World Checklist of Vascular Plants. Introduced, extinct and doubtful records are excluded, so this is where the plant is from, not everywhere it now grows.
RegionTDWG codeContinent
Arizona ARI NORTHERN AMERICA
California CAL
Colorado COL
Idaho IDA
Montana MNT
Nevada NEV
New Mexico NWM
North Dakota NDA
Oregon ORE
Utah UTA
Wyoming WYO

Region boundaries approximated from Natural Earth (public domain) and mapped to TDWG World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions (WGSRPD) level-3 botanical countries (Brummitt 2001). Indicative, not the official WGSRPD geometry.

Also published as 29 synonyms

A synonym is not an error. It is a record of botanists disagreeing, in print, about where this plant belongs. Each of these was somebody’s considered answer.

  • Lupinus aduncus Greene
  • Lupinus argenteus var. argophyllus (A.Gray) S.Watson
  • Lupinus argenteus var. heteranthus (S.Watson) Barneby
  • Lupinus argenteus var. montigenus (A.Heller) Barneby
  • Lupinus argenteus var. utahensis (S.Watson) Barneby
  • Lupinus argentinus Rydb.
  • Lupinus argophyllus (A.Gray) Cockerell
  • Lupinus caespitosus var. argophyllus (A.Gray) S.L.Welsh
  • Lupinus caudatus subsp. argophyllus (A.Gray) L.Ll.Phillips
  • Lupinus caudatus subsp. cutleri (Eastw.) L.W.Hess & D.B.Dunn
  • Lupinus caudatus var. caudatus
  • Lupinus caudatus var. microphyllus C.P.Sm.
  • Lupinus cutleri Eastw.
  • Lupinus decumbens var. argophyllus A.Gray
  • Lupinus gayophytophilus C.P.Sm.
  • Lupinus greenei A.Nelson
  • Lupinus helleri Greene
  • Lupinus holosericeus var. utahensis S.Watson
  • Lupinus laxiflorus var. argophyllus (A.Gray) M.E.Jones
  • Lupinus leucopsis var. utahensis S.Watson
  • Lupinus lupinus Rydb.
  • Lupinus meionanthus var. heteranthus S.Watson
  • Lupinus montigenus A.Heller
  • Lupinus montis-libertatis C.P.Sm.

and 5 more.

Sourcesevery claim on this page

  1. World Flora Online Plant List. accepted name, authority, classification. CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-12.
  2. iNaturalist. photographs and flowering annotations, CC0 / CC BY / CC BY-SA only. per photograph. Retrieved 2026-06-27.
  3. Wikidata. common name (P1843), joined on the World Flora Online identifier (P7715). CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-13.
  4. Kew, World Checklist of Vascular Plants (WCVP v16). native distribution by TDWG level-3 botanical country, and life form. CC BY 3.0. Retrieved 2026-06-04.

We publish what we can source and we say so when we cannot. This page has no care advice and no toxicity claim, because we do not yet have those from a source we can cite.