karlanderson1's Identifications

I decided to check these out since I was in the area. I was aware of these thanks to @johnkeisers. I was expecting to find these in an open clearing in full sun, but to my surprise they were growing underneath a canopy of pitch pine. They seem to have a green-silvery foliage compared to other lupine species. There were many seedlings (last 2 pics are seedlings) and these plants have no problems with reseeding and germination. But growing to maturity seems to be another matter.

Last year I had looked on inaturalist to see where these plants naturally occurred. I was trying to understand what kind of growing conditions these plants like because I had several seedlings from seeds I purchased.

Long story short, I was unsuccessful with growing them to maturity. I had two in clay loam which seemed to do fine during the growing season, but they didn't emerge this year. Either out competed by my other plants, the soil conditions were wrong, or both.

Other native plant people seem interested in growing these and are also unsuccessful from what I've observed. Which is unfortunate since they're a host plant of a rare butterfly, and they are also beautiful. Now that I saw them in their natural habitat I'm understanding more about their growing requirements. The forest floor is dry sand, probably acidic too. Its not surprising to me these are an S2 plant as they seem to be fickle. I may try giving them a grow next year in specific soil to try and better understand what they need.

I thought this violet was a little unusual looking from the common blue violet. These violets were small. The leaves were hairless. The sepals are triangular. I thought maybe marsh blue violet? Not sure about this one.

So many of these low growing blueberries around here. They were all over the understory of pitch pine. I tried combining some of the images to get a more clear picture of the flowering parts and leaves. A couple of feet in height only, green stems. I think it is this blueberry.