My nephew, Cuauhtemoc, who lives with his family near Floresville, spotted some rare white, or albino, bluebonnets (Lupinus texensis) in his backyard.

Are they still called bluebonnets? Is it a case of a “A rose by any other name would smell as sweet”?

As you can see, the albinism only affects the flower – the stem and leaves look pretty normal. The green in plants is due to chlorophyll, a biochemical which plants use to convert sunlight to useful energy. A plant which lacked all color, including green, would not be able to produce energy. There are a few examples of this but they don’t last long.

Rare albino bluebonnet. Photo by Cuauhtemoc Arizpe.

Many thanks to Cuauhtemoc for spotting these rarities. It’s estimated that white bluebonnets will occur once in a 100,000,000 flowers. It took his keen observation to notice them. I had never seen one and I’m glad he sent me the photo.

Here’s a few growing on our property. While we don’t have many, the rains this year caused them to come out. I’ve mentioned before that they seem to grow in the poorest soil and this patch is no exception.

If you look closely, you can see a red spot on some of the flowers. I have heard that this spot, which starts white, turns red when a bee has pollinated the flower. After doing a bit of research, I think that might be a bit of a tale. It seems the spot does indeed start white and turns red, but that happens because the flower ages.

This is an example of a correlation, but not a causation. It is more likely that an older flower has been pollinated versus a newer flower, but that is not the cause of the color change.

In any case, a marvelous example of nature’s ways, and a method to guess how old your bluebonnets are!