Temperate zone plant genus of the Fabaceae family of legumes; mature plants can cause several syndromes (the green plants are safe): (1) convulsions after exercise due to alkaloids in the seeds; (2) liver damage caused by fungal toxins (phomopsins) produced by Phomopsis spp. growing on the crop stubble or in the seeds, which also causes intermittent photosensitization (called also lupinosis); (3) possibly precipitation of acute attacks of copper poisoning; (4) skeletal myopathy; and (5) pregnancy toxemia and acetonemia in cows. Includes L. albus, L. albicaulis, L. alpestris, L. andersonii, L. angustifolius, L. arboreus, L. argenteus, L. burkei, L. cosentini (L. digitatus), L. cumulicola, L. cyaneus, L. erectus, L. evermannii, L. formosus, L. greenei, L. latifolius, L. leucophyllus, L. leucopsis, L. littoralis, L. luteus, L. montigenus, L. nootkatensis, L. onustus, L. perennis, L. polyphyllus, L. pusillus, L. spathulatus, L. varius.
- L. caudatus, L. laxiflorus, L. sericeus — these plants, together with many other Lupinus spp., contain quinolizidine alkaloids (anagyrine), the cause of the crooked calf syndrome, in which calves are born with limbs in excessive flexion, rotated, generally malpositioned, and malaligned.
