A cool-season legume with an upright stem, leaves divided into several digitate leaflets, and terminal racemes of pea-shaped blossoms. Three species, yellow, blue, and white, each named for the color of its blossoms, are cultivated as field crops; several hybrids are grown as ornamentals; and many species occur as wild plants. The yellow crop varieties are usually the earliest and smallest, the whites latest and largest. Field crop lupines have been grown in Europe since early Roman times as a soil-improving crop. The older varieties could not be used as forage since the plants contained a bitter, water-soluble, toxic alkaloid. However, since 1912, plant breeders have developed “sweet” varieties with only traces of alkaloid.