Mark Howell, 58, who lives at the end of Highbush Lane, is
baffled by the white lupines growing across the street. “I came
across those white ones,” he said about the first patch he
discovered, “and I don’t know where the heck they came from.” He
has thick rows of purple lupines growing next to his house, but
this is the first year he has ever seen white ones — and he has
been living on Highbush since the 1960s. His only guess at their
origin is the birds. He thinks they ate the seeds from the patch
growing behind his house and then deposited them across the
street. But he isn’t sure. His white lupines, however, may not
be the Kenai Peninsula phenomena he thinks they are.
Agricultural and Horticulturist Extension Agent Lydia Clayton
said Howell’s white lupines are a matter of genetic variation.
It is the same as human genetics, Clayton said. “We end up with
eye color and hair color based on our genetics,” she said, and
the same is true for plants. She said there are other patches of
white lupines around the P