Spermatophytes (seed plants): Angiosperms (flowering plants): Eudicots: Core Eudicots: Rosids: Fabids: Fabales
WEAKLEY'S FLORA OF THE SOUTHEASTERN US (4/24/22):
Baptisia australis
FAMILY
Fabaceae
Go to FSUS key
Dig deeper at SERNEC, a consortium of southeastern herbaria.
You may find it helpful to read The Genus Baptisia in South Carolina by Bill Stringer.
Native west of the Appalachians; records from east of those mountains are escapes from cultivation. Read more at Vascular Plants of North Carolina.
See Weakley et al. (2018a) for detailed discussion of the taxonomy of the "blue Baptisias".
B. australis has for many years been the classical “dumping ground” for material collected in the Middle West. Read more in A monograph of the genus Baptisia (Larisey, 1940).
SYNONYMOUS WITH
PLANTS NATIONAL DATABASE:
Baptisia australis var. australis
FAMILY
Fabaceae
INCLUDED WITHIN Native & naturalized Leguminosae (Fabaceae) of the US (Isely, 1998)
Baptisia australis var. australis
INCLUDED WITHIN VASCULAR FLORA OF THE CAROLINAS (Radford, Ahles, & Bell, 1968) 098-09-002:
Baptisia australis FAMILY Fabaceae
SYNONYMOUS WITH A monograph of the genus Baptisia (Larisey, 1940)
Baptisia australis
INCLUDED WITHIN Manual of the Southeastern Flora (Small, 1933, 1938)
Baptisia australis
COMMON NAME:
Tall Blue Wild Indigo, Streamside Blue Indigo, Tall Blue Baptisia
To see larger pictures, click or hover over the thumbnails.
)
JK Marlow jkm0405h_25
May Haywood County NC
Corneille Bryan Native Garden
)
JK Marlow jkm0505l_18
May Haywood County NC
Corneille Bryan Native Garden
)
JK Marlow jkm160516_736
May Haywood County NC
Corneille Bryan Native Garden
Pea-like flowers deep blue-violet, in a long raceme extending above leaves, per Wildflowers of Tennessee, the Ohio Valley, and the Southern Appalachians (Horn, Cathcart, Hemmerly, & Duhl, 2005).
)
JK Marlow jkm160516_736b
May Haywood County NC
Corneille Bryan Native Garden
)
JK Marlow jkm160516_737
May Haywood County NC
Corneille Bryan Native Garden
Leaflets 4-6 (-9) cm long, mostly > 12mm wide; leaflets not oriented in a vertical plane, per Weakley's Flora (2023).
COMPARE
leaves that are trifoliolate and palmately compound
)
JK Marlow jkm210508_0172
May Oconee County SC
In cultivation
)
JK Marlow jkm210508_0173
May Oconee County SC
In cultivation
Leaves palmately trifoliate; leaflets 1-3" long, per Wildflowers of the Southern Mountains (Smith, 1998).
)
Richard and Teresa Ware rtw_baptisia_australis
May
)
JK Marlow jkm0407j_28
July Haywood County NC
Corneille Bryan Native Garden
Fruits thin-walled, plump, with a long persistent claw-shaped style, per Wildflowers of the Eastern United States (Duncan & Duncan, 1999).
WEAKLEY'S FLORA OF THE SOUTHEASTERN US (4/24/22):
Baptisia australis
FAMILY
Fabaceae
SYNONYMOUS WITH
PLANTS NATIONAL DATABASE:
Baptisia australis var. australis
FAMILY
Fabaceae
INCLUDED WITHIN
Native & naturalized Leguminosae (Fabaceae) of the US (Isely, 1998)
Baptisia australis var. australis
INCLUDED WITHIN
VASCULAR FLORA OF THE CAROLINAS (Radford, Ahles, & Bell, 1968) 098-09-002:
Baptisia australis
FAMILY
Fabaceae
SYNONYMOUS WITH
A monograph of the genus Baptisia (Larisey, 1940)
Baptisia australis
INCLUDED WITHIN
Manual of the Southeastern Flora (Small, 1933, 1938)
Baptisia australis
187
Forb
Perennial
Habitat: Riverbank scour areas, gravel bars, and disturbed areas (where persisting from cultivation), per Weakley's Flora
Native to Georgia & TN & northwards (original range obscured by cultivation)
Rare or waif(s)
CLICK HERE to see a map, notes, and images from Weakley's Flora of the Southeastern US.
LEAVES:
Palmately compound: 3 leaflets
Mostly alternate
FLOWER:
Spring/Summer
Blue/Violet
Bilaterally symmetrical
4-5 toothed or lobed calyx
5-parted papilionaceous corolla
10 stamens
Superior ovary
FRUIT:
Summer
Legume
TO LEARN MORE about this plant, look it up in a good book!
- All About South Carolina Wildflowers (Midgley, 1999) p118
- Gardening with Native Plants of the South (Wasowski & Wasowski, 1994, 2020) p149
- Gardening with the Native Plants of Tennessee (Hunter, 2002) p111?
- Newcomb's Wildflower Guide (Newcomb, 1977) p060?
- Wildflowers of the Atlantic Southeast (Cotterman, Waitt, & Weakley, 2019) p414
- Wildflowers of the Eastern United States (Duncan & Duncan, 1999) p030
- Field Guide to the Wildflowers of Georgia (Chafin, 2016) p186
- Wildflowers of Tennessee (Carman, 2005) p128
- Wildflowers of Tennessee, the Ohio Valley, and the Southern Appalachians (Horn, Cathcart, Hemmerly, & Duhl, 2005) p164
- Wildflowers of the Southern Mountains (Smith, 1998) p079
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