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Baptisia albescens

This plant is not currently for sale.  This is an archive page preserved for informational use.  

Baptisia albescens is a bushy, leguminous herbaceous perennial with foliage about two feet high supporting much taller spikes of white, pea-like flowers, hence the common name of “Spiked Wild Indigo”. Wider than it is tall, the plant has bluish-green foliage and is more shrub-like in the landscape during the growing season. Baptisias are drought-tolerant and durable and unfussy about soil, due to their very deep tap roots and their ability to fix atmospheric nitrogen. They may not flower for a season or two from seed, but they are very long-lived and can give pleasure for decades if undisturbed. Plant them where you intend to keep them, as they are not easily transplanted. Found in the Sandhills and Piedmont areas of NC, they are fully adapted to dry, open conditions (full sun) and regular fire.

Key Info

Scientific Name: Baptisia albescens Small
Common Names: Spiked Wild Indigo, Narrow-pod White Wild Indigo, White Wild Indigo
Family Names:
Plant Type:
Light Requirement:
Moisture Requirement: , ,
Bloom Times: , ,
Flower Color: White
Special Characteristics: , , , , ,

Additional Info

Habit: Tall, upright, open, shrub-like perennial, no basal rosette
Height: 2'-4'
Spread: 2'-3'
Soil Conditions: Medium to dry soils, neutral to slightly acid pH, sandy, clay, loam
Leaves: Leaves are trifoliate, arranged alternately on the mostly unbranched stems. They blacken rapidly in fall.
Flowers (or reproductive structures: Upright racemes of small white flowers typical of pea flowers with an upper banner petal and two wing petals spread out to the sides and partly enclosing a "keel" petal. The blooms occur on long racemes, maturing from the bottom up.
Fruit: Inflated bean-like pods develop from the flowers. Many enjoy the pods in dry flower arrangements. Unlike our other Baptisia species, the pods are erect, cylindric, about 3× as long as the diameter, and yellowish-brown (rather than black) when mature, from July to October.
Natural Distribution: Dry, open woodlands, pine flatwoods, roadsides
USDA Hardiness Zone: 3 to 10
USDA Wetland Indicator Status in NC: FACU
Pollination: Primarily bumblebees.
Wildlife Connections: The flowers attract large numbers of native bees and bumble bees. Also Baptisias are host plants for the larvae of several butterfly species (including Orange Sulphur, Clouded Sulphur, Frosted Elfin, Eastern Tailed Blue, Hoary Edge, Wild Indigo Duskywing, and the Jaguar Flower Moth) as well as a range of others: skippers, moths, weevils, beetles, bugs and thrips. (inferred from B. australis data, Illinoiswildflowers.info)
Propagation: By seed (collect when pods begin to split) or by divsion in fall or spring when the plant is dormant.