Stinging Lupine

The stinging lupine is an annual plant species in the fabaceae, that is, legume family, which occurs mostly on dry mountain slopes, in particular ones upon which fire has charred the area.  Known by the scientific name lupinus hirsutissimus, it is native to much of California, including the coastal mountains of Baja California and California as far north as the San Francisco Bay Area as well as on the Channel Islands. It is present in the San Bernardino Mountains.
An erect annual herb growing from eight to nearly 40 inches tall under normal conditions, it may exceed that height in habitat recovering from wildfire.
Visually attractive, it is  an erect, leafy plant with green stems and leaves, and pinkish-purple to reddish-lavender pea flowers in racemes. The stinging lupine’s flower cluster bears several flowers generally not arranged in whorls. Each flower is between 1 and 2 centimeters long and purple to dark pink in color with a yellowish to pinkish spot on its banner. The fruit is a hairy legume pod up to an inch and two-thirds long.
Each palmate leaf is made up of 5 to 8 leaflets up to 2.3 inches long and just under an inch wide.
Because it is so inviting visually, it often comes as a shock to those people who attempt to pick it, as its leaves and stems are covered with yellow, stinging bristles or very prickly hairs. Those having touched it will feel stung, as the bristles are loaded with histamines and, in much more minute quantities, acetylcholine, serotonin, leukotrienes, and moroidin, though the stinging lupine is not as concentrated in these substances as are some other plants such as stinging nettle or poison oak, poison ivy or poison sumac.
If upon encountering stinging lupine an individual is experiencing no more than contact irritation and no allergic reaction, the symptoms can be relieved by some simple procedures.
By not touching the resultant surface rash for the first ten to twenty minutes after contact, the offending chemicals will dry so that they can more easily be removed. Touching, rubbing or scratching the rash site shortly after initial contact with the plant will drive the plant’s chemicals deeper into the skin and cause the reaction to be more severe and longer lasting. After a duration of a half hour or so, use of mild soap and water will wash the chemicals from the surface of the skin. This will likely immediately reduce much of the irritation and pain, itching, or swelling. A clean cloth can be used, if soap and water are not available, to lightly dust the affected area.
After cleaning, a sturdy tape can be used to remove any remaining fibers from the skin. If the tape isn’t effective, a wax strip hair-removal product can be brought to bear.
If the irritation persists, the juices from a dock plant or a jewelweed plant, derived from crushing those plants’ leaves can be applied to neutralize the histamines and other chemicals.
Cool compresses can also be used for relief, along with the application of a thin film of aloe vera and a paste made from baking soda and water. In applying such a poultice, it should be dabbed on rather than not rubbed.
While stinging Lupine is most common in mountain areas, within chaparral and woodlands habitats, it does occur rather rarely in desert areas. 
From Wikipedia, https://calscape.org,  https://www.abdnha.org, https://lpfw.org and
https://www.healthline.com

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