 |
|
Resources < Wildlife Habitats < Guide to Native Plants of Georgia for Wildlife < Amorpha fruticosa
Indigo Bush is an underused but extraordinarily beautiful native shrub. Its flower spikes begin as a deep blue or purple not ordinarily found in most landscapes. Neon orange stamens, plump with pollen, burst out from the petals and light the stalks up as if they were on fire. By the end of the blooming period, the top of the plant looks like the charred live coals of a hot fire. It is an amazing effect that can be admired up close or from a distance, and is all the better with more plants.
Good companion plants include white, yellow, or blue-flowered Baptisias, Black Locust, Honeylocust, Spiderwort, Bluestar, Mountain Mint, Beebalm, Cardinal Flower, or ornamental grasses.
Fabaceae/Leguminosae (Bean/Legume)
A multi-stemmed, suckering, medium-sized deciduous shrub. Bark is smooth and gray. Leaves are alternate, pinnately compound, up to 10” long, with up to 35 leaflets per leaf. Leaflets are elliptical with entire margins, petiolate, ½-1 ½” long, dull green above and lighter green below, and usually glabrous. Flowers are borne on tall 6” showy spikes that terminate twigs, and are deep purple to blue with long, bright-orange or yellow anthers. They appear in early to mid-summer and open from the base to the tip. Fruits are small cucumber-resembling pods, bright green and drying to brown, possess blister-like glands, and are between ¼-1/2” long.
6-10 feet tall and 6-10 feet wide
Multi-stemmed, suckering, medium-sized deciduous shrub
Fast
Full sun to partial sun
Indigo Bush prefers moist soil, and optimal sites should be near water. If not sited near water, amend the backfill with substantial organic matter such as rotted leaves or compost. Also, mulch with 2-4” pine straw, leaves, or wood chips to maintain moisture. Supplemental irrigation of at least 1” water per week during dry times such as summer may be necessary to grow Indigo Bush in dry locations. It is much more tolerant of drought than other water-margin plants.
Assets include the delicate, pleasant foliage and its tall size. The best part, however, are the showy flower spikes spotted with the neon colors of the anthers.
Use Indigo Bush as a specimen or in groupings at the margins of bogs, ponds, streams, creeks, lakes, or water gardens. Its foliage and flowers blend especially well with the Black Locust.
Foliar host for the larvae of the California Dogface, Southern Dogface, Silver-Spotted Skipper, Gray Hairstreak, and Hoary Edge Skipper butterflies. The foliage is occasionally browsed by deer and other herbivorous mammals, but is not a preferred food. The flowers provide nectar to bees, butterflies, moths, and other insects.
Native to the eastern US east of the Mississippi River from Florida north to Quebec; naturalized throughout the western US from Washington south to California, east to Louisiana, and north to Manitoba. Favored habitats include stream and pond edges, gravel bars, open woods, roadsides, and canyons.
Scarified and hot water-soaked seeds, softwood or hardwood cuttings
Also known as Desert Indigo Bush, False Indigo Bush
Written by Kevin Tarner, Georgia Wildlife Federation
Photos courtesy Western New Mexico University Department of Natural Sciences
& the Dale A. Zimmerman Herbarium
|
