Big Blue with Rare White
Bentham lupines dominate the frame, creating an almost continuous field of blue during Gorman’s extraordinary 2003 “Big Blue” bloom. Within that abundance, a single rare white lupine immediately breaks the pattern. Closer examination reveals still more diversity: scattered globe gilia and fiddleneck appear between the lupines while one California poppy seems almost shyly hidden among the surrounding blue. What first appears to be a nearly monochromatic field is, on closer inspection, a much more complex wildflower community.
The overwhelming impression was blue. Bentham lupines were so dense across portions of the Gorman hills that individual plants seemed to merge into broad fields of color. In the middle of that abundance, the solitary white lupine was impossible to overlook.
The spring of 2003 became known among longtime local residents as “the Big Blue,” a fitting name for hills covered in more blue—and more shades of blue—than they could remember seeing there. Residents described it as the most intense blue bloom in more than 75 years.
Yet the photograph also rewards a closer look. Globe gilia and fiddleneck are scattered through the Bentham lupines and a single California poppy is almost hidden within the mass of blue. These small interruptions of different form and color reveal that even the most visually dominant portion of the “Big Blue” contained a surprising mixture of species.
See also Man in Blue .