Kansas Wildflowers and Grasses

WHITE WILD INDIGO

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Baptisia alba (L. ) Vent. var. macrophylla Isley

[=Baptisia lactea (Raf. ) Thieret]

[=Baptisia leucantha T. & G.]

Woodson County, Kansas

Perennial

Height: 20-80 inches

Family: Fabaceae - Bean Family

Flowering Period: May, June, July

Also Called:

Atlantic wild indigo.

Stems:

Erect, solitary with ascending branches, glabrous, waxy.

Leaves:

Alternate, 3-foliolate, on stalks 1/5 to 1 inch long; stipules 1/5 to 1.2 inches long, lanceolate to ovate, usually falling before or during flowering; leaflets narrowly egg-shaped, oblanceolate, or elliptic, 1 to 3 inches long.

Inflorescences:

Racemes, 1-several, stout, terminal; central one 8 to 24 inches long.

Flowers:

Stalks 1/8 to 1/2 inch long; bracts ovate-lanceolate to lanceolate, 1/4 to 1/2 inch long, usually dropping before or during flowering; calyx tube 1/3 inch long, 2-lipped, upper lip entire or notched, lower lip 3-lobed, lobes triangular; corolla papilionaceous, white; banner 2/5 to 3/5 inch long, shorter than wings; wings and keel straight, 4/5 to 1 inch; stamens 10, distinct.

Fruits:

Pod, ellipsoid-oblong, 1/10 to 1/5 inch long, glabrous, drooping, black when mature; tip narrowed to short beak; seeds olive to yellowish-brown, covered with wart-like projections.

Habitat:

Rocky prairie hillsides and ravines, stream valleys, and roadsides

Distribution:

Principally in the east 1/3 of Kansas, but occasionally further west.

White wild indigo stamens