Journal of the Department of Agriculture, Western Australia, Series 4

Volume 17 Number 3 1976 Article 2

1-1-1976

The Mediterranean white lupin

John Sylvester Gladstones

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Recommended Citation Gladstones, John Sylvester (1976) "The Mediterranean white lupin," Journal of the Department of Agriculture, Western Australia, Series 4: Vol. 17 : No. 3 , Article 2. Available at: https://researchlibrary.agric.wa.gov.au/journal_agriculture4/vol17/iss3/2

This article is brought to you for free and open access by Research Library. It has been accepted for inclusion in Journal of the Department of Agriculture, Western Australia, Series 4 by an authorized administrator of Research Library. For more information, please contact [email protected], [email protected], [email protected]. The mediterranean white lupin

J. S. Gladstones, Senior Plant Breeder Strictly speaking, the com­ mon name of albus is "Both these unhappy soils the swain "white lupin", a direct transla­ forbears, tion of its Latin botanical name, And keeps a Sabbath of alternate and it is so known in most Eng­ years, lish-speaking countries. Un­ That the spent earth may gather fortunately the practice has heart again, grown up in Western Australia And bettered by cessation bear the of referring to varieties of the grain, narrow-leafed lupin (Lupinus At least where vetches, pulse and angustifolius) which have white tares have stood, flowers and seeds, such as Uni- And stalks of lupines grew (a stubborn white, Uniharvest and Unicrop, wood), as "white lupins". This is in­ The ensuing season, in return, may correct. The name "Mediter­ bear ranean white lupin" is used here The bearded product of the golden for L. albus to make the dis­ year." tinction clear, but desirably this From Virgil, the first book of should be contracted to "white Georgics (Dry-den's translation). lupin", and the correct common name "narrow-leafed lupin" used for all varieties of L. "If you want to bring in a good angustifolius. lupin harvest, thrash your wife soundly before you go out sowing in the field". The author with a plant of L albus. Old Syrian proverb. However, recent genetic studies have shown that the two forms cross Like nearly all wild lupins, these readily, and that they differ only in Lupin breeder Dr. John Gladstones have blue flowers and dark, mottled a few simply inherited genetic factors. does not beat his wife as recommended seeds, impermeable seed coats, and The cultivated forms undoubtedly in the Syrian proverb above. Nor is pods which shatter as soon as they arose from the wild types by ancient he known to use ground-up lupin are ripe. Like all wild lupins they but deliberate selection of desirable seeds for the diverse cosmetic and are very bitter. agronomic features, such as non- medicinal purposes recommended in So different in appearance are shattering pods, permeable seed ancient Roman and other texts on these wild types from their cultivated coats, larger seeds, more erect lupins. counterparts that botanists long as­ growth, and earlier flowering—pre• But his modern work on lupin sumed them to be a different species, cisely as is being repeated in the 20th breeding and development has un­ which was named Lupinus graecus. Century for other lupin species. doubtedly been influenced by his detailed study of such writings. In this article he discusses the history of the Mediterranean white lupin and presents some highlights gleaned from early texts.

Release of the variety Ultra marks the first commercial cultivation in Australia of the Mediterranean white lupin, Lupinus albus. Unlike pre­ vious commercial lupin varieties in Australia, all of which belong to species only recently domesticated, Ultra belongs to a lupin species with a long history of cultivation. The first cultivation of L. albus was probably in the Balkan Penin­ sula, where wild ancestors still exist. Distribution of L. albus in the Mediterranean as a wild and cultivated plant. 70 Journal of Agriculture Vol 17 No 3, 1976 However, they remained bitter. Sweet, crop forms such as Ultra were not selected until the 1930's; or if selected, they were lost again. Reference has been made to the finding of L. albus seeds in Egyptian tombs of the 12th Dynasty (about 2,000 B.C.), but according to Han- elt*, who has studied the subject thoroughly, the species was not present in until about the start of the Christian era. At that time it was already well established in Roman agriculture and had been cultivated in for at least several hundred years. However, Hanelt also cites literary evidence of Low (1881) that lupins were men­ tioned on Assyrian cunieform tablets, and that they had probably been imported into Babylon. The Greek word for the species was "thermos", which means hot, perhaps in reference to the extreme bitterness of the seeds. All names for it throughout the Middle East appear to be derived from this, for example termis in Egypt, turmus in Arabic and in India, turmusa in Aramaic, and Furmesa in Syrian. This further Flowers of L albus. Although usually white they often have a purplish blue indicates a Greek origin for the crop tinge. Note the smooth upper surface of the leaflets. as cultivated. throughout the Roman Empire, and Still it needs the mild temperature of L. albus in Ancient Greece and was extensively described by Roman autumn to become quickly estab­ Rome writers on agriculture. The charac­ lished, for if it has not taken a The earliest extensive published ref­ teristics and value of the crop were strong hold before winter it is erence is that of the Greek physician well known. Columella, who lived at greatly injured by the cold . . . The Hippocrates (400-356 B.C.), who Cadiz in , wrote as follows in lupin likes lean ground, as I have spoke of lupins in human nutrition his book "De Re Rustica", pub­ said, and especially reddish soil; it along with lentils, and peas. lished about 60 A.D.*: "First con­ has an intense dislike of chalky Theophrastus (372-288 B.C.) re­ sideration belongs to the lupin, as it ground, and does not come up at all ferred at length to lupins in his requires least labour, costs least, and in a miry field." "Natural History of ", a of all crops that are sown is most Elsewhere (Book 2. XV. 5) Colu­ botanical work regarded as authori­ beneficial to the land. It affords an mella states: "if (the farmer) will tative until the Middle Ages and excellent fertilizer for worn-out vine­ scatter lupin on lean ground about later. Among other things, Theo­ yards and ploughlands; it flourishes the middle of September, plough it phrastus noted that lupins sought even in exhausted soil; and it en­ in, and at the proper time cut it up poor and sandy soils and would dures age when laid away in the with a ploughshare or mattock, it grow on rough, even uncultivated granary. When softened by boiling will have the effect of the best man­ land, and that they should be sown it is good fodder for cattle during the ure. The lupin should be cut in immediately after threshing of the winter; in the case of humans, too, gravelly soil when it is in second previous crop; further, "they should it serves to ward off famine in years flower and in sticky soils when it is not be harvested before the rain, of crop failure. It is broadcast direct in third flower. In the former case otherwise they burst open and lose from the threshing floor, and it is it is turned under while still tender, their seeds". The latter points sug­ the only one of all the so that it may rot quickly and be gest that the crop at that time may which does not require a rest in the mixed with the thin soil; in the latter still have been hard-seeded, and that bin, whether you sow it in unbroken when it has grown stronger, so that the non-shattering pod characteristic fallow in the month of September it may hold up the more solid clods may not have been as fully developed before the equinox, or immediately longer and keep them suspended, to as now. after the Calends of October; and be broken down by the summer sun". whatever way you cover it, it with­ Cultivation of the white lupin was stands the carelessness of the farmer. It is an interesting commentary on well established in Rome and soil types that the Greek and Roman writers always speak of lupins for * Hanelt. P. (I960)—"Lupinen". (A. Ziemsen: * Book 2.X.2 Tr. H. B. Ash. (Heinemann: Wittenberg). London. 1948.) growing on the poorest soil types. 71 Journal of Agriculture Vol 17 No 3, 1976 In Western Australia, L. albus suc­ the South American agronomist ceeds only on relatively fertile soils, A. Burkhart (personal communi­ which, however, are probably no cation), seeds of bitter white lupins better than equivalent to the poorest are used as a sciatica cure there soils farmed by the Romans. The today. really poor soil types on which we White lupin seeds also had social now grow lupins in Western Aus­ uses and significance in Rome. They tralia are not only rare in the Medi­ were used as counters or counterfeit terranean; they could not be farmed money (aurum comicum, or "funny at all without our modern know­ gold") in plays and games—for ledge of plant nutrition and ferti­ which their smoothness and square, lizers. This is probably the reason flattened shape made them well why lupin species more adapted to suited. The term"nummus lupinus" poor sandy soils than L. albus had came to mean money which was to await the 20th Century to be fictitious or of little value. Generals properly exploited for agriculture. who had been accorded a triumph, or All Roman writers stressed that citizens who aspired to office and artificially de-bittered lupin seed, in power, also distributed lupins (pre­ addition to being used for stock feed, sumably debittered) to the assembled was widely used for human consump­ crowds on public occasions. The tion—but only among the poorer catch-cry "Lupins for the people!" classes and in times of particular Seeds of Ultra White lupins, about I -5 belongs in history as well as in need. The extreme bitterness of the times natural size. contemporary television comedy. seeds, whose alkaloid content can With the collapse of Roman exceed 2 0 per cent, is hard to get civilisation, white lupins continued to rid of completely, and this and per­ away the loathing of the stomacke to meate and provoketh the appetite: be grown around the Mediterranean haps other factors did not commend and in the Middle East, although lupins to the wealthier classes. the decoction or infusion of Lupines taken with hony and vinegar killeth perhaps not on the same scale as Many cosmetic and medicinal the wormes in the belly, but if you previously. uses were described for lupin seed. mixe Rue and Pepper thereto, you Mention is made of lupins in the Writers as early as Hippocrates shall make it the more effectuall: the 15th Century Persian-Arabian "Tales mentioned the use of lotions pre­ meale or pouder taken with hony or of the Thousand and One Nights". pared from the powdered seeds for vinegar or in drinke doth the same: On the 947th night: "As the girls beautifying the face; with a high pro­ the said decoction taken openeth the turned away, an old woman entered tein and relatively high oil content, obstructions of the liver and spleane, the hamman, bearing a bowl upon such a function is believable. provoketh urine and womens courses her head, filled with fried earth nuts It is less clear how much the if it be taken with mirre, and expeleth and roast lupins. Some of the young medicinal role stemmed from a real the dead childe: the decoction of women bought her goods for a penny, pharmacological effect of the al­ them clenseth all scabbes, morphew, a half-penny, or two pence; and kaloids (or other constituents?), and cankers, tetters, and creeping or Dalai, wishing to forget her trouble, how much from the abominably running ulcers and sores and boyled called to her, saying: "Give me a bitter taste of the seeds if unleached in lye it clenseth the head from pennyworth of lupins, good aunt". of their alkaloids. ulcers, scurfe, & c. breeding therein: The old women sat down by the Certainly the range of ailments it also clenseth the face, and taketh bench and filled a horn measure with supposedly helped by lupin medi­ away the markes that the Poxe doe lupins . . .". cation, as described by the Greek leave after their healing, and all writer Dioscorides( 1st Century A.D.) other markes, and black and blew Lupins in Northern Europe spots in the skinne: and to clear the and widely quoted by the herbalists European botanical works of the of the 16th and 17th Centuries, was face, and make it more amiable, many women do use the meale of 16th and 17th Centuries give com­ quite remarkable. To quote the mon names for the white lupin in English writer Parkinson (1640)*. Lupines mingled with gall of a Goate, some juyce of Lemonds, and many languages, showing that it was "Lupins by reason of their bitter- a little A lumen saccharinum, made widely known. Botanists continued nesse do open, digest, dissolve, and into a forme of softe ointment: the to use the latin Lupinus, a name dense, being steeped some daies in meale therof being boiled in vinegar whose ultimate origin is uncertain water, until they have lost their and applied, taketh away pimples, but is thought to be derived from bitternesse, they may be eaten, and so and scattereth the nods or kernells lupus, Latin for wolf. Perhaps this are, as Galen saith, for necessitie, that rise in the body, and breaketh "wolf " was so named because it but they breed grosse and crude carbuncles and imposthumes: the grew in rough and wild places, and humours . . . the same being so burning of the huskes driveth away had the wolves for company. An­ steeped, and afterwards dried, beaten Gnats, Flies, & c. whatsoever." other origin suggested is that it was and taken with some vinegar, taketh thought to prey on the soil because Other writers refer to lupins as a the soils on which it grew were nearly * Parkinson, John (1640). "Theatricum Botani- cure for inflammation of the middle always poor, but the Romans' cum" or "An Universall and Compleate Herball". (Tho. Cotes: London). ear and for sciatica. According to knowledge of its benefits to soil 72

Journal of Agriculture Vol 17 No 3, 1976 fertility would seem to rule out this (cultivated lupin), or just Lupinus, Attempts were made to introduce confusion of cause and effect. in contrast to a variety of names commercial white lupin growing into Hanelt reports that the first refer­ including Lupinus sylvestris (lupin of Northern Europe in the late 18th ence in the German literature is that the woods) which covered both Century. The Prussian emperor of Hildegardis von Birgen (1098- narrow-leafed and yellow lupins. Frederick II took a personal interest 1178), who called it vichbona (Old When Linnaeus reformed the botani­ in the experiments, but they failed High German for cattle bean). cal nomenclature in 1753 he called due to the extreme poverty of the Later equivalents were feigbonen the white lupin Lupinus albus, and Baltic soils and the late maturity of (Middle High German) and fyckboin this name has remained the recog­ the Italian lupin types introduced. (Middle Low German). nised botanical name since. Later, in 1817, Karl von Wullffen Returning to the development of made new introductions from the Parkinson in 1629 wrote: "In the white lupin in agriculture, Piero south of France, and grew them with English we usually call them after de Crescenzi (about 1300) wrote that some success for green manure on the Latine name, Lupines; and in Tuscany, expert farmers still used his Brandenburg estates. some after the Dutch name, Figge- lupins for green manuring. However beanes, because they are flat and After about 1850 white lupin present day cultivation in most cultivation declined and its place as a round as a Figge that is pressed; and regions of the Mediterranean seems some Flat-beanes for the same green manure plant taken largely by to be confined to small areas on bitter narrow-leafed lupins (L. angus- reason". Clearly Parkinson was poorer farms, grown mainly as a mistaken in his etymology. tifolius) and especially bitter yellow subsistence crop for direct human lupins (L. luteus), which were much Other names were dijchboonen in consumption. better suited to the climate and the Brabanti, lupino domestico in Italian, Narrow-leafed or occasionally yel­ sandy, acid soils. lupin in French, and a variety of low lupins tend to be used for green names such as entramocos, altramuz manuring, where this is done at all. Sweet white lupins or chochos in the Spanish dialects, A small amount of white lupin seed Early in the 20th Century, com­ and tremoco in Portuguese. The enters commerce, and after de-bit- mercial breeders in Germany at­ English lupine, applied to all the tering and salting is served in bars tempted to develop better adapted species of the , gave way to and cafes as an appetiser, or is used varieties, using introductions from lupin only in the 20th Century, and is in the preparation of bean-type the eastern Mediterranean which still the standard spelling (and dishes. Such cultivation can be seen were earlier flowering than the pronunciation) in the U.S.A. occasionally among communities of previous introductions from southern Botanically, the white lupin was Italian origin in the south-west of Europe. The first such varieties ap­ known usually as Lupinus sativus Western Australia. peared in the 1920's.

Developed pods of L. albus. Immature pods of sweet L albus varieties can be sliced and eaten like french or runner beans. 73 Journal of Agriculture Vol 17 No 3, 1976 Following his success in isolating Because of their inability to grow fibre content in the seeds compared sweet (alkaloid-free) strains of L. well on lhht sandy soils, Ultra and with narrow-leafed lupins. Field luteus and L. angustifolius, the other Mediterranean white lupin trials by the CSIRO in conjunction German breeder von Sengbusch (L. albus) varieties are unlikely to with the Department of Agriculture turned his attention to L. albus, and become the predominant lupin type have also suggested that L. albus in 1930 succeeded in finding several grown in Western Australia. They varieties are less susceptible to the sweet plants among the many thou­ may find a greater role in Eastern Phomopsis fungus than narrow-leafed sands of plants individually tested. Australia where the soils are in lupin varieties, and less liable to cause Unfortunately they were selected general heavier and more suitable. lupinosis in grazing stock. from bitter stocks of French and Nevertheless locally they could be­ Italian origin, and were too late With these advantages in mind, come a useful adjunct to the present further selection and breeding has maturing for northern European sweet narrow-leafed varieties, by conditions. Later, in 1935, he been started to develop varieties bet­ extending lupin growing on to heavier ter suited to a low rainfall areas, and selected sweet plants from earlier- soils than hitherto. particularly to high rainfall areas of maturing bitter types of Palestinian Particular advantages of the Medi­ the south-west where lupinosis is origin. terranean white lupin include higher now a major barrier to lupin crop­ Meanwhile, a number of other protein and oil contents and a lower ping. German breeders had become active in white lupin breeding, most notably Prof. Heuser at Landsberg. As w:ll as making further selections for sweetness, Heuser succeeded in find­ ing natural mutants among early flowering bitter types which were less lanky in their growth, and gave better seed production. This material was continually given to other breeders, and formed the basis of most of the varieties sub­ sequently bred in Germany, including "Ultra" which was developed by Schultz and Velsen in West Germany and approved for release in 1950. Ultra combines sweetness, due to the gene pauper, with early maturity and "short" growth habit.

L. albus in W.A. Ultra proved to be the best under most W.A. conditions of the Medi­ terranean white varieties introduced during the 1950's and 1960's, on the basis of observation and the limited plot testing possible at that time In subsequent field trials it has given good seed yields on well drained loamy (e.g. York gum) soils in medium rainfall areas such as the Avon Valley and especially the Chapman Valley. However, the trials have confirmed earlier indica­ tions that the Mediterranean white lupin—whether bitter or sweet— A stand of cv. Ultra in 3rd flowering. Note the sturdy, erect growth. L albus grows very poorly and is highly sub­ is less liable to lodging on fertile soils than L augustifolius. ject to brown spot disease on the Branching occurs in an ordered sequence, with about three branches developing sandy soil types where most Western immediately below each inflorescence as it comes into flower. Three or more Australian lupins are now grown. generations of flowers may develop if the growing season is long enough.

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Journal of Agriculture Vol 17 No 3, 1976