A Lupine like Chameleon or some other similar variety?

Lathyrus linifolium ?

why do you think its a native???

are you giving us a clue.. or leading us down a wrong path??

ken

Ken.... For God's sake... I'm trying to ID the plant, not play hide 'n' seek with you... The plant/flowers were spotted out in the wilds, so it was assumed to be a native plant. It's true that it can just as well be some invader, but you gotta start the post out with something. If you didn't know anything useful on the plant, why bother to post and antagonize people?!

Everyone else.... Thank you for your ideas. I think a garden escaped Baptisia is the most likely candidate. The flowers look an awful lot like Baptisia 'Solar Flare'.

That was my other guess before I posted but I couldn't find any pictures of the flowers in tight buds... Glad you came to the same conclusion.

Probably one of the shrubby lupines like L. arboreus, these are often seen near beaches and in similarly barren locations in this region. This is much more likely than a baptisia, which I have never seen outside of cultivation here - and I don't think looks like the plant in question anyway.

I agree that it's a Baptisia, but perhaps not straight Solar Flare. Here's a photo of Solar Flare - a bit tighter and fuller flowers with more red, less blue tones to them. But it certainly looks like something similar.

I agree that it is more likely a lupine than a baptisia. Like Embothrium, I have never seen any baptisia self-seed around here - not all that common a perennial in this area to begin with - but lupines are dead common. There are several native species common to western WA and the Puget Sound area, including Lupinus lepidus and L. polyphyllus, which hybridizes freely with garden lupines (most garden lupines are polyphyllus hybrids).

Flowers of these natives tend not be held in the same dense spikes as garden lupines.

I checked the BONAP maps, and only native Baptisia species have been documented, with all of them east of Colorado. Lupinus does seem more likely. I worked through about 40 species that were listed for Washington. The one with similar flowers was L. arboreus, as Embothrium suggested.

I am not wedded to Baptisia. Note the ? in my suggestion. Tree Lupin would certainly fit the beach side location. And the lack of whorls could just be sparsity due to growing conditions. If only we could see some leaves.

I did see a second plant with similar flowers, and forgot to mention it ... Lupinus polyphyllus (a Russell hybrid). See this link for an example.

Thank you all for your responses.... Doesn't seem like this mystery is any closer to being solved. I also wish my friend had thought to photograph the whole plant, too =\ That would probably made distinguishing between the mentioned plants a whole lot easier.... But, again, I thank you all for taking the time to post and at least provide some directions for my friend to narrow the search.

Inflorescence structure shown typical of tree lupine, at this point I don't think there should be much doubt it is that or similar.