lupins

Noun

lupin (plural lupins)

1. Any member of the genus Lupinus in the family Fabaceae.
   • Amongst the herbs to be administered when the charm was sung over him were a yew-berry, lupin, helenium, marsh mallow, dock, elder, wormwood and strawberry leaves.1922, Eleanour Sinclair Rohde, The Old English Herbals, London: Longmans, Green and Co., page 16
2. A lupin bean, a yellow legume seed of a Lupinus plant (usually Lupinus luteus), used as feed for sheep and cattle and commonly eaten in the Mediterranean area and in Latin America although toxic if prepared improperly.
   • Lupins contain less than 3% starch (Evans, 1994), the main fermentable carbohydrate involved in rumen acidosis when cereal grains are fed to ruminants. For this reason lupins have generally been regarded as a completely safe feed for sheep and cattle, and required no gradual introduction (Rowe...1998, Tam Garland, A. Catherine Barr, Toxic Plants and Other Natural Toxicants, CABI, →ISBN, page 143

   Synonyms:

   lupini