Is Miss Rumphius responsible?

For those who may not know her, Miss Rumphius is a character in a same-named children’s book, written by Barbara Cooney. Miss Rumphius lived an independent and adventurous life, but desired to “make the world more beautiful” as her grandfather had directed her when she was a young girl. In her elder years, she did this by spreading lupine seeds everywhere she went, which blossomed into beautiful flowers across the countryside.

 Lupines are a genus of plants that are indeed gorgeous, though the type planted by the real-life lupine lady and inspiration for the book may not be the best lupine for the Maine hills where she lived. That variety, known as big leaf lupine, blue bonnet or quaker bonnet (Lupinus polyphyllus), hailed from western North America and only came east in the 1950s.

 The lupine native to New England is Lupinus perennis, though this plant is getting harder and harder to find. Martha’s Vineyard doesn’t have a population of this species and while Nantucket could claim it was historically found, no recent records show its current existence on that Island. 

 In Massachusetts, there are only about 80 historic records and less that 50 current records of native lupine and this plant is on a watch list due to its reduction in numbers. Last year, this variety, whose common name is sundial lupine, was submitted for inclusion in the state’s endangered, threatened or special concern plant list.

 The difference between the native and non-native variety is easy to observe, with the former having five to seven leaflets, while the latter has 11 to 17 leaflets. The flower is also telling, with smaller blooms for the native variety. Native lupine provides greater benefits to wildlife, including serving as a host plant for the karner blue and frosted elfin butterflies and as a food source for bees and the monarchs.

 Even with this knowledge, it is impossible to fault Miss Rumphius or any other person with the desire to spread joy and happiness through the planting of lupines. Lupines have a large fan club that includes the original lupine lass, the author of Miss Rumphius and the many readers of this favorite book.

  John Steinbeck also loved lupines. In The Wayward Bus, he speaks to their inspiration: “In the deep spring when the grass was green on fields and foothills, when the lupines and poppies made a splendid blue and gold earth, when the great trees awakened in yellow-green young leaves, then there was no more lovely place in the world. It was no beauty you could ignore by being used to it. It caught you in the throat in the morning and made a pain of pleasure in the pit of your stomach when the sun went down over it.”

And only when given the choice of death over these flowers did a group of English royalty hand over their blossoms when Monty Python’s famous highwayman Dennis Moore uttered the immortal words “Your life or your lupines.”

 Though I favor native flora, I was also moved when I came upon a field of non-native lupines in West Tisbury. It is difficult not to fall for (and plant) those lovely lupines, no matter their origins. After all, beauty will always be in the eyes of the beholder, even if I know that my loyalties should lie with the locals. 

Suzan Bellincampi is director of the Felix Neck Wildlife Sanctuary in Edgartown, and author of Martha’s Vineyard: A Field Guide to Island Nature and The Nature of Martha’s Vineyard.