Plantae > Tracheophyta > Magnoliopsida > Fabales > Fabaceae > Amorpha > Amorpha fruticosa

Amorpha fruticosa (dullleaf indigo; indigobush; leadplant; desert false indigo; false indigo-bush; Bastard Indigo; desert indigobush; False Indigo; Indigobush Amorpha)

Synonyms:
Language: German; Russian

Wikipedia Abstract

Amorpha fruticosa is a species of flowering plant in the legume family (Fabaceae) known by several common names, including desert false indigo, false indigo-bush, and bastard indigobush. It is found wild in most of the contiguous United States, southeastern Canada, and northern Mexico, but it is probably naturalized in the northeastern and northwestern portion of its current range. The species is also present as an introduced species in Europe, Asia, and other continents. It is often cultivated as an ornamental plant, and some wild populations may be descended from garden escapes.
View Wikipedia Record: Amorpha fruticosa

Infraspecies

Amorpha fruticosa var. crocealanata
Amorpha fruticosa var. subglabra

Attributes

Bloom Period [1]  Late Spring
Drought Tolerance [1]  Medium
Edible [2]  May be edible. See the Plants For A Future link below for details.
Fire Tolerance [1]  Low
Flower Type [2]  Hermaphrodite
Frost Free Days [1]  3 months 10 days
Fruit/Seed Abundance [1]  High
Fruit/Seed Begin [1]  Summer
Fruit/Seed End [1]  Fall
Growth Form [1]  Multiple Stem
Growth Period [1]  Spring, Summer
Growth Rate [1]  Slow
Hazards [2]  The plant is said to contain alkaloids and be poisonous to livestock;
Leaf Type [2]  Deciduous
Lifespan [1]  Perennial
Propagation [1]  Bare Root, Container, Seed
Root Depth [1]  24 inches (61 cm)
Scent [2]  The flowers have a vanilla perfume.
Seed Spread Rate [1]  Rapid
Seed Vigor [1]  Medium
Seeds Per [1]  77000 / lb (169756 / kg)
Shape/Orientation [1]  Climbing
Structure [2]  Shrub
Usage [2]  Plants have an extensive root system and are also fairly wind tolerant, they can be planted as a windbreak and also to prevent soil erosion; Resinous pustules on the plant contain 'amorpha', a contact and stomachic insecticide that also acts as an insect repellent; The stems are used as bedding; The plant contains some indigo pigment and can be used to make a blue dye; Unfortunately, the pigment is only present in very small quantities, there is not enough to harvest commercially;
Vegetative Spread Rate [1]  None
Flower Color [1]  Purple
Foliage Color [1]  Green
Fruit Color [1]  Brown
Fruit Conspicuous [1]  Yes
Height [2]  14.76 feet (4.5 m)
Hardiness Zone Minimum [1]  USDA Zone: 3 Low Temperature: -40 F° (-40 C°) → -30 F° (-34.4 C°)
Light Preference [1]  Full Sun
Soil Acidity [1]  Neutral
Soil Fertility [1]  Infertile
Water Use [1]  Low
Screening - Summer [1]  Dense
Screening - Winter [1]  Porous
View Plants For A Future Record : Amorpha fruticosa

Protected Areas

Predators

Epargyreus clarus (silverspotted skipper)[3]
Lycaena lycidas (Hoary Edge)[3]
Zerene cesonia (Dog's head butterfly)[4]

Providers

External References

USDA Plant Profile

NatureServe Explorer

Citations

Attributes / relations provided by
♦ 1USDA Plants Database, U. S. Department of Agriculture
♦ 2Plants For A Future licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License
♦ 3Butterflies of Canada, Canadian Biodiversity Information Facility
♦ 4Jorrit H. Poelen, James D. Simons and Chris J. Mungall. (2014). Global Biotic Interactions: An open infrastructure to share and analyze species-interaction datasets. Ecological Informatics.
♦ 5Robertson, C. Flowers and insects lists of visitors of four hundred and fifty three flowers. 1929. The Science Press Printing Company Lancaster, PA.
Abstract provided by DBpedia licensed under a Creative Commons License
Species taxanomy provided by GBIF Secretariat (2022). GBIF Backbone Taxonomy. Checklist dataset https://doi.org/10.15468/39omei accessed via GBIF.org on 2023-06-13; License: CC BY 4.0