Wild Indigo

(Baptisia tinctoria)

 

   

 

Color Photograph: Midwestern wetland flora: Field office guide to plant species. U.S.D.A. Soil Conservation Service, Midwest National Technical Center.

Line Drawing: Britton, N.L., and A. Brown. 1913. An Illustrated Flora of the Northern United States and Canada, Second Edition.

 

Wild Indigo (Baptisia tinctoria (L.) R. Br. ex Ait. f.)

Identification: Flowers yellow, pealike, arranged in irregular racemes. Stems and leaves may have a bluish bloom. Leaves with very short petioles or nearly sessile to the stem. Leaflets with blunt apices and widest near the apex. Leaf color gray-green, leaves turning black when dried. Plant 1 to 3 feet in height.

Distribution: Throughout most of eastern North America except in the south and west.

Habitat: Wild Indigo is a species of dry woods and woodland clearings.

Flowering period: May to September.

Similar Species: Wild Indigo could be confused with Birdfoot Trefoil. However the leaf of Birdfood Trefoil is divided into 5 leaflets, not 3. Blue False Indigo has blue or violet flowers.

Copyright Nearctica.com, Inc. 2003. All rights reserved.