(Arrowleaf Balsamroot)

This cheerful golden-flowered perennial is a tough compact mountain dweller. It is native to most western states, and western Canada, where it inhabits forest clearings and sandy outcrops from 1000 feet (304.8 m) up to the timber line. Each plant produces a very large carrot-like root that affords excellent drought resistance where summer rainfall is rare.

The short wide-leaved plants produce individual clumps of emerald green, and put forth many leafless stems topped with golden daisies in...

(False Indigo)

The genus Baptisia is comprised of around 20 species of North American wildflowers. They are mostly herbaceous perennials that die back every year and all exist in eastern North America. Commonly known as false or wild indigos, these plants have upright clusters of blooms that add interest to perennial gardens and wildflower plantings. Some species were used medicinally and for dye by Native American tribe’s people.

The plants form substantial mounds and shrubby clumps of foliage in...

(Carolina Moonlight False Indigo, Hybrid False Indigo)

Beautifully clumping with upright stems clothed in bluish green leaves, Carolina Moonlight false indigo has pretty spikes of light yellow flowers in mid-spring to early summer. A hybrid herbaceous perennial, it resulted from the cross of Baptisia alba with B. sphaerocarpa. It is slow growing with a deep taproot.

The blue-green to light green leaves have three oval leaflets. Depending on severity of the winter, the emergent stems and leaves will produce an upright flower spike...

(Hybrid False Indigo)

Beautifully clumping with upright stems clothed in bluish green leaves, Chocolate Chip false indigo has pretty spikes of brown-burgundy flowers in mid-spring to early summer. A hybrid herbaceous perennial, it resulted from the cross of Baptisia alba with B. sphaerocarpa. It is slow growing with a deep taproot.

The blue-green to light green leaves have three oval leaflets. Depending on severity of the winter, the emergent stems and leaves will produce an upright flower spike...

(Hybrid False Indigo)

The genus Baptisia is comprised of around 20 species of North American wildflowers. They are mostly herbaceous perennials that die back every year and all exist in eastern North America. Commonly known as false or wild indigos, these plants have upright clusters of blooms that add interest to perennial gardens and wildflower plantings. Some species were used medicinally and for dye by Native American tribe’s people.

The plants form substantial mounds and shrubby clumps of foliage in...

The genus Baptisia is comprised of around 20 species of North American wildflowers. They are mostly herbaceous perennials that die back every year and all exist in eastern North America. Commonly known as false or wild indigos, these plants have upright clusters of blooms that add interest to perennial gardens and wildflower plantings. Some species were used medicinally and for dye by Native American tribe’s people.

The plants form substantial mounds and shrubby clumps of foliage in...

(White False Indigo)

Beautifully clumping with upright purple-gray stems clothed in bluish green leaves, white false indigo has pretty spikes of white, lupine-like flowers in mid-spring to early summer. An herbaceous perennial from the dry woods in the southeastern United States, it is slow growing with a deep taproot.

The blue-green to light green leaves have three oval leaflets. Depending on severity of the winter, the emergent stems and leaves will produce an upright flower spike as early as mid-spring, or later...

(Cobwebby Wild Indigo, Hairy Rattleweed)

Gray-green leaves that look like those of a species of Eucalyptus is one reason cobwebby wild indigo is delightful; the others are its yellow flowers and dark seeds. An herbaceous perennial endemic (native only) to Georgia in the southeastern United States, it is a locally (state) and federally endangered wildflower species.

The light green, oval to heart-shaped leaves are covered in silvery gray, making it resemble the florist filler sprigs of an eucalpyt. In early summer, it produces...

(Blue False Indigo, Plains False Indigo)

When looking upon a mature false indigo in bloom it looks much like a small shrub, but it’s truly an herbaceous perennial, meaning it dies back to the ground each year. Native populations of false indigo exist across a large part of eastern North America, in all but a few of the most southern states. They tend to grow in old-fields, prairies and other open wild areas. Some Native American tribes used Baptisia roots for medicine and the flowers or flowering stems for the dye they yield. Despite...

(Dwarf Blue False Indigo)

This is a shorter variety of the large, bushy perennial, false indigo, so it's better suited to smaller garden spaces. Native populations of false indigo exist across a large part of eastern North America, in all but a few of the most southern states. They tend to grow in old-fields, prairies and other open wild areas. Some Native American tribes used Baptisia roots for medicine and the flowers or flowering stems for the dye they yield. Despite the common name, false indigo dye is not blue...