PEI Wildflowers :: Lupines

We have always loved wildflowers and part of discovering our new island home is to find out about nature, including flora. 


Last week, we went for a short walk on the Confederation Trail. This trail passes through Charlottetown and continues all through PEI. I'm hoping to either bike or walk more of it soon. 


Celeste and I noticed some patches of lupine growing in a field right next to the trail. We saw a path and took it to get a closer look. We have seen lupines growing along the roads outside the city everywhere we have been so far. We have seen pink, purple and white lupines. 

According to Get PEI website: "While the provincial flower is the Lady's Slipper, it is the lupine that is the flower most commonly associated with Prince Edward Island.  The PEI government considers them to be invasive (i.e. a weed) and there are annual efforts to reduce their numbers on the island."


Wikipedia tells us that after the flowers, beans appear and they are "commonly sold in a salty solution in jars (like olives and pickles) and can be eaten with or without the skin."


We might just have to plant a couple of these in our backyard and try the beans! 

We think lupines are beautiful and they remind us of one of our favourite stories, "Miss Rumphius" by Barbara Cooney. 

The story is about Miss Alice Rumphius who wants to make the world more beautiful. She travels everywhere and finally comes back home. She finds that planting lupines in the wild helps fulfill her quest. 


You can watch a retelling of the book (but the story is still very close) with pictures from the book on this youtube video: