Kincaid's lupine (Lupinus sulphureus ssp. kincaidii (Smith) Phillips) is a rare endemic plant of the Willamette Valley. A member of Fabaceae, the pea family, it is a long-lived perennial plant of native upland prairie remnants. It was listed as a Threatened species under the Endangered Species Act just this year, in January. It is an obligate larval foodplant of a rare butterfly, Fender's blue butterfly, which was also recently listed as an Endangered species. I have undertaken several ecological field projects, and laboratory experiments on Kincaid's lupine biology. I tested the effects of gamete source on seed production and progeny fitness, with hand pollination treatments, in two natural populations. Low seed production and progeny fitness has been observed in many populations. This is suspected to be a result of possible self-incompatibility and inbreeding depression in small isolated populations. Pollination treatments were used as an indirect method to assess the effects of selfing versus crossing across various genetic distances. I am using inter-sequence-series repeat primers in a PCR-based method to genotype sampled plants in the gamete source experiment. These data will allow me to calculate the genetic distance of crossing treatments, and correlate them to seed set and progeny performance. These molecular markers will allow estimation of genetic diversity, and may indicate population viability concerns. Due to the randomly dispersed sampling of the genotyped samples, I will also be able to characterize the extent of clonal growth and spread in the two study populations.

Key words: endemic, hand pollination, inter-sequence-series repeat, Kincaid's, lupine, Lupinus sulphureus ssp. kincaidii