USA - Texas - State Flower (1)

BLUEBONNETS (Lupinus Texensis)
The Texas State Flower

Sent by Ezra, a postcrosser from Kansas, USA.

This is from Wikipedia : The bluebonnet, as a name common to several North American species of Lupinus, is the state flower of Texas. They typically grow about 0.3 m (1 ft) tall. The name may come from the shape of the petals of the flower and their resemblance to the bonnets worn by pioneer women to shield themselves from the sun. It may instead be derived from the Scottish term bluebonnet, for the traditional blue coloured version of the tam o'shanter hat.

Lupinus texensis is almost exclusively blue in the wild. A random genetic mutation does occasionally create an albino white bluebonnet naturally. Texas A&M University researchers were successful in breeding red and white strains, creating a Texas state flag in bluebonnets for the 1986 Texas Sesquicentennial. Further research led to a deep maroon strain, the university's official color.

Lupinus argenteus var. palmeri (syn. L. palmeri) grows in Texas, California, Colorado, Utah, Arizona and New Mexico. It is commonly referred to as a bluebonnet lupine.

Bluebonnet season in Central Texas generally runs from mid-March to late May.