To illustrate the pitfalls of native gardening, she cites the example of perennial or wild blue lupine, a Northeast native with stalklike flowers and deeply variegated leaves.

There is a carpet of white desert primrose and blue lupine for a good eight miles on both sides of the road.

Below its careening trunk, patches of yellow and blue lupine flowed like paint spills down a sloping green canvas.

Marjorie Pierce sat on the porch of her 158-year-old general store, gazing upon her garden of blue lupines, the lush meadow and the Green Mountains against the evening sky.

Inside, the office is old-fashioned, with hand-painted murals in each examining room that feature barnyard scenes and grassy fields of blue lupine, astronauts and even an Egyptian tableau.

On other days we rode, through dun-colored meadows dotted with brilliant blue lupine, yellow hornbells and monkeyflowers and an occasional bright red Indian paintbrush.

Birds are abundant on the island, as are the deep pink wild roses, beach pea, blue lupine, black-eyed Susans and fringed orchis.

Its caterpillar savors only the leaf of the wild blue lupine, a wildflower with violet-blue blossoms that thrives in sunny meadows.

The adult female, which has all of a one-inch wingspan, lays its eggs on the blue lupine's leaves before it dies.

Attempts to reintroduce the butterfly focus on the food and host plant for its larvae - the wild blue lupine, which needs frequent forest fires to maintain its habitat.