White Lupine

Appearance

The white lupin is an annual, more or less pubescent plant, 30 to 120 cm high, that is widely distributed within the Mediterranean region. It grows naturally throughout the southern Balkans, the Italian mainland region of Apulia, the islands of Sicily, Corsica, and Sardinia, and the Aegean Sea, as well as in Lebanon, Israel, Palestine, and western Anatolia. It can be found in meadows, pastures, and grassy slopes; predominantly on both sandy and acidic soil. The white lupin is cultivated all over the Mediterranean region; it can also be found in Egypt, Sudan, Ethiopia, Syria, Europe, North and South America, and tropical and southern Africa. The ancient culture of white lupin under the local name "hanchcoly" was practiced until recently in western Georgia.

White lupin is distinct within the vast and polymorphous genus "Lupinus" L. for small variation of morphological characters. However, it has wide intraspecific variability in physiological plant properties: duration of vernalization time and growth rate, photoperiodic sensitivity, shape tolerance, drought resistance, and cold- and winter-hardiness. There are winter and spring forms of white lupin. Duration of the growing period under spring sowing varies from 106 to 180 days, seed mass per plant changes from 2.2 g to 40 g, green mass yield per from 9 g to 250 g, protein content in seed from 35.0% to 53.7%, and oil content from 6.2% to 12.0%.

Evolution

The beginning of the history of lupin cultivation in the Old World is often associated with the times of the ancient Egyptian civilization. It is, however, more likely that originally white lupin was introduced into cultivation in ancient Greece where its greatest biodiversity was concentrated and wild-growing forms have been preserved until nowadays. On the Balkan Peninsula, representatives of another subspecies of white lupin turned wild and grows now in natural environments. Besides, the Grecian genesis of cultivated lupin is testified by lupin's Greek name "thermos", which may be translated as "hot". Until today, in many countries of the world water-soaked and boiled lupin seeds are sold on markets and in bars as snacks. White lupin dispersed step-by-step from Greece to adjacent countries, in particular, to Egypt and Ancient Rome. The forms with white seeds and pink-and-blue or light-pink flowers spread mainly towards the south, while the forms with white seeds and grayish-blue or white flowers moved to the west.

Uses

According to Zohary and Hopf, "even today the white lupin is an appreciated food crop and it is still cultivated in some Mediterranean countries – particularly Egypt." They list several archeological findsites that include Bronze Age Thera and several Roman Egypt sites. Today, lupin is known in Arabic as "ترمس" "termes", and is a popular street snack in Egypt after being treated with several soakings of water, and then brined.

In Greece, and especially on the island of Crete and in the Peloponnese area, they are a very common snack during the period of lent before Easter. They are normally soaked in seawater for 2–3 hours to mellow the flavour and consumed raw.

In Spain, Portugal, and southern Italy it is a very popular snack as well as in some regions of Brazil.Bean mosaic virus is transmitted by aphids and with infected seed. It is the major viral disease for "Lupinus albus". A major disease for the other lupines is cucumber mosaic virus. "Lupinus albus" is immune to this virus.