Thursday, Jul. 3, 2025
Are many lupine plants in Maine considered invasive species?
The vast majority of lupine plants seen in Maine — known for their tall spikes of bright purple flowers — aren’t native to the state and are considered invasive by many botanists.
The bigleaf lupine (Lupinus polyphyllus), also called western lupine, is native to the West Coast and is listed on Maine’s invasive plant advisory list as “potentially invasive” by the state Department of Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry.
Maine’s only native lupine species, the sundial lupine (Lupinus perennis), once supported native pollinators such as the endangered Karner blue butterfly, but it is now believed to be largely extirpated — a term meaning locally extinct — in the wild. The bigleaf lupine has primarily taken its place.
Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens recommends that Mainers remove bigleaf lupines from their gardens and replace them with sundial lupines, which can still be purchased from many nurseries and online seed sellers, despite being locally extinct in the wild.
This fact brief is responsive to conversations such as this one.
Sources
- Maine Department of Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry Advisory List of Invasive Plants – 2019
- Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens Maine’s True Lupine
- Cape Elizabeth Land Trust Lupines Across Maine
- National Park Service A Tale of Two Lupines
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Fact briefs are bite-sized, well-sourced explanations that offer clear "yes" or "no" answers to questions, confusions, and unsupported claims circulating online. They rely on publicly available data and documents, often from the original source. Fact briefs are written and published by Gigafact contributor publications.
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