Use for: mass plantings, accents, hedges, cut flowers, rain gardens, and pollinator gardens. Examples include: ‘Lemon Meringue’ (yellow), ‘Vanilla Cream’ (ivory), and ‘Cherries Jubilee’ (maroon), to name a few. Blue False Indigo is a bushy perennial with vibrant blue-green leaves. Talabac, UMEĬultivated varieties of false blue indigo offer different flower colors and more compact forms that grow to only 2.5’-3’ tall. Native false blue indigo is a herbaceous perennial with a shrub-like growth habit. The above-ground growth of false indigo dies with the first hard freeze and can be pruned down to the ground in late fall or early spring. One of its common names, rattlebush, refers to the rattle sound made by the ornamental dried seed pods. This plant was used by Native Americans for medicinal purposes and to make a blue dye.

The medium blue flowers bloom for about 2-3 weeks in May-June and are followed by pea-like green pods that turn black in the fall. In the garden, this herbaceous perennial plant grows into an attractive shrub-like form. Garden Uses: False blue indigo (Baptisia australis) is native to Maryland but now rare in its natural habitat - woodlands, streambanks, and floodplains of the Piedmont and Mountain regions. Baptisia australis, commonly called blue false indigo, is an upright perennial which typically grows 3-4 tall and occurs in rich woods, thickets and along streambanks from Pennsylvania south to North Carolina and Tennessee. The lasting blooms make excellent cut flowers and attract bees, butterflies, and hummingbirds to the late-spring garden. Tall spikes of indigo blue, lupine-like flowers bloom above sculpted blue-green foliage. Soil: sandy-rocky soil tolerates clay pH < 6.8 Dwarf Blue Baptisia is a dazzling native perennial with vibrant blooms and decorative seed heads. The common name of false indigo refers to the use of certain native baptisias by early American colonists as a substitutes, albeit inferior, for true indigo (genus Indigofera) in making dyes.Maryland Distribution: Mountain and Piedmont regions status is now rare/threatenedįlowers: showy blue flowers on 10”-12” long spikes in May-June insect-pollinated, primarily by bumblebeesįall color: none leaves turn black at the first fall freeze The genus name Baptisia comes from the Greek word bapto meaning 'to dye'. Common Name: blue false indigo Type: Herbaceous perennial Family: Fabaceae Native Range: Eastern United States Zone: 3 to 9 Height: 3.00 to 4.00 feet Spread: 3.00 to 4. minor and the species are not significantly different. Although the species is not a Missouri native, Steyermark maintains that for all practical purposes var. minor appears to differ from the species primarily by being a smaller plant with shorter stems and shorter leaves but larger flowers. Stems with seed pods are valued additions to dried flower arrangements.

Seeds rattle around in the blackened pods which were once popularly used by children as rattles. Flowers give way to inflated seed pods (to 2.5' long) which turn charcoal black when ripe and have considerable ornamental interest. It features purple, lupine-like flowers in erect racemes (to 12') atop flower spikes extending well above a foliage mound of clover-like, trifoliate, bluish-green leaves (leaflets to 2' long).

Part of our Pollinator Buffet plant tag series. Foliage is blue-green (or gray-green) and growth habit is shrub-like. Additionally, it’s a nitrogen-fixing plant, meaning it improves soil fertility by converting nitrogen from the air into a usable form, benefitting. Native to eastern North American prairies. Its deep taproot allows it to withstand drought conditions, making it ideal for water-wise gardens. This long-lived perennial legume, hardy in zones 3 to 9, has long been a favorite, although underused, garden plant. Seeds in black pods often rattle in the wind. False Blue Indigo is a hardy plant that requires minimal maintenance once established. Baptisia australis, commonly called blue false indigo, is an upright perennial which typically grows 3-4' tall and occurs in rich woods, thickets and along streambanks from Pennsylvania south to North Carolina and Tennessee. Clusters of indigo-blue, pea-like flowers in spikes followed by black pods.

Blue false indigo plant