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I found these Lupines growing next to West Portal Station (totally urbanized area), in sandy soil where some very large old Pines were cut down last year. I can only guess they were very old seeds laying dormant in the sandy soil awakened by the removal of the pine needle mulch and addition of sun and heavy rains this year. I heard about another place in the city where an old victorian building was bulldozed and Lupines sprouted in the vacant lot so this is not as improbable as it sounds. I was lucky to gather some seeds at the perfect stage of ripeness. These are very low growing and appear to me to be perennial, each plant branched out to nearly a foot in diameter.

Possible species include:

nanus (annual) makes massive wildflower displays in meadows.

*variicolor (AKA versicolor, perennial)

Bicolor (annual/perennial) is supposed to be the most common in SF.

*formosus (perennial) is considerably larger than these in my experience.

* asterisk indicates species is a specialized host to the endangered Mission Blue butterfly. L. albifrons, a larger perennial is the only other species the larvae will feed on.