More than you ever wanted to know about lupines and wolfsbane

[Amy Z]

Amanda wrote on the main list:

>Plus Texas bluebonnets are lupines, which I think are
>so-called because wolfsbane is in that family (this may be legend; I
>never checked it out, but the association did help the tip-off). 

I went out and looked at the wolfsbane in the garden.  No lupines, 
sadly--they're one of my favorite flowers, a state of affairs that 
predates my discovery of HP--but lupines have very distinctive star-
shaped leaves so I thought I might notice a resemblance.  Looked 
similar enough that I looked up aconite and lupinus on the web and 
found that they are not in the same family.  The info is from the 
University of Waterloo (Ontario) Dept. of Environment and Resource 
Studies.

Aconite is in the family Ranunculaceae (buttercup family, crowfoot 
family, spearwort family)

Lupines are in the family Fabaceae [Leguminosae] (bean family, pea 
family, pulse family) (pulse=legumes, fellow USans).  

BTW, both of these plants are toxic.  Do not eat.  My search 
generated a lot of "plants toxic to your bird" sites, plus Monk's 
Hood is the title of an Ellis Peters mystery featuring, IIRC, poison 
from that plant.

Now here's another question:  according to the song "Gulf Coast 
Highway," Texas is "the only place on earth bluebonnets grow."  Are 
bluebonnets exactly the same thing as blue lupines?  (The list of 
species and varieties on that website didn't include bluebonnets.)  
Here in Vermont blue, purple and pink lupines grow wild.  

And they are in season right now . . . ah, that wonderful, slim 
window of time when the lupines have begun to bloom and the lilacs 
are not yet faded . . .

Happily,
Amy Z