LUPININE · Texas bluebonnet (Lupinus texensis)
Water. The aquifer is downstream of the bloom.
Lupinine — a quinolizidine alkaloid produced by bluebonnets and other lupines — is water-soluble at confirmed nanogram/litre concentrations and leaches from decaying plant matter into aquifer recharge zones. Blocks nicotinic and muscarinic acetylcholine receptors; inhibits ion channels.
Entries
2 filedLupinine in the aquifer — a leaching mechanism with peer-reviewed precedent
Lupinine, the dominant quinolizidine alkaloid in bluebonnets and other lupines, is water-soluble. Peer-reviewed research has confirmed it leaches from decaying plant matter through soil into drainage water and groundwater at nanogram-per-litre concentrations. Spring water drawn from aquifers in lupine bloom regions can carry the toxin without any deliberate contamination — no tampering required.
LUPININE · VERIFIEDThe bluebonnet century — 90 years of state-sponsored roadside seeding
Beginning in the 1930s and accelerated through the 1960s under the Highway Beautification Act, the Texas Department of Transportation has deliberately seeded bluebonnets along Texas roadways for nearly a century. The program's stated purpose is beautification. Its effect — regardless of intent — is the steady increase, over decades, of lupine plant density adjacent to aquifer recharge zones.