I was having a look on the internet to see why my lupin is not flowering. Worse than not flowering, my lupin looks as if it's dying. Last year my lupin was a prodigy of flowers. It was invading the other plants' spaces, it really became a nuisance. This year, however, it is just looking small and sad. What's happened? I was trying to get some more information on the web when I had a revelation...I've been eating lupins' "fruit" (lupins are legumes ) for years, as a child, and I never knew those legumes came from a variety of the plant I now have in my garden! Known as 'altramuz' in Spanish, the blue lupin as a legume is kept in salted water and eaten as an aperitif in Mediterranean regions. Lupins were consumed in high quantities in the 1940s Spain as a cheaper substitute to lentils and chickpeas, during the post-war famine, although the modern X Generation has been spared the knowledge of the sad past of the legume by their parents. Now I have discovered my old (unknown) relationship with the plant growing in my garden, I'll see if I can know why it is not flowering this year!


Estaba echando una ojeada a google para averiguar porque mi lupino florece. Aun peor, ademas de no florecer parece que esta agonizando. El anio pasado el lupino era un prodigio de flores y crecimiento acelerado. Era todo un fastidio, invadiendo sin cesar el espacio de las otras plantas del jardin. Y sin embargo este anio ni crece ni florece y esta de lo mas triste. Que ha pasado? Andaba yo tratando de encontrar mas informacion sobre los lupinos cuando se produjo una revelacion.... estuve comiendo los "frutos" ( los lupinos son leguminosas ) de esta planta durante anios, en mi niniez, sin saber nunca que esas legumbres provenian de la variedad azul de la planta que tengo ahora en el jardin. Estas legumbres, llamadas 'altramuces' en Espania, se conservan en agua salada y se comen, con o sin piel, como aperitivo en las zonas mediterraneas. Al ser una variedad barata, fue consumida en grandes cantidades en Espania durante los anios 40, durante la hambruna de la posguerra, para sustituir lentejas y garbanzos. Para la Generacion X, sin embargo, el altramuz es el gran desconocido, probablement porque sus padres evitaron el innecesario consumo posterior (y los malos recuerdos asociados a ello). Y ahora que he descubierto mi antigua (y desconocida) relacion con la planta del lupino, voy a ver si averiguo por que no florece este anio.


The weather today:
Mostly Cloudy
26C
UV Index: 5 Moderate
Wind: From the Northwest at 6 mph
Dew Point: 15°C
Humidity: 51%
Visibility: 6 miles
Barometer:1014.9 m