Natural Highlights: Indigo Bush

Our Annual Tree Planting event on March. 4th will feature 12 native woody perennial species, including Indigo Bush (Amorpha fruticosa), a flowering shrub which attracts a host of native pollinators.  We will also be potting up Wild Plum and Virginia Pine seedlings and 9 species of oak trees (White, Swamp White, Swamp Chestnut, Bur, Chinkapin, Overcup, Nuttall, Cherrybark, and Shumard).  

Indigo Bush – also called False Indigo Bush, False Indigo, Desert False Indigo, or River Locust - prefers moist soils and is often found along river banks and pond edges, but it is tolerant of a wide range of conditions and capable of thriving in a home landscape or in poor soils.  As a member of the Legume or Pea Family, it is a nitrogen-fixer, and it is unusual because its small blue to purple flowers have only a single petal unlike most other legumes.  The flowers, borne on a spike, appear from April to June and are very attractive to pollinators. The shrub is also a host plant for California and southern dogface butterflies, silver-spotted skippers, gray hairstreaks, and hoary edge skippers. A mature Indigo Bush can be 6 to 12 feet tall and tends toward legginess and thicket formation, so successful placement in a home landscape would depend on careful consideration of these factors.

To learn more about Indigo Bush, please visit the following links:

https://www.wildflower.org/plants/result.php?id_plant=AMFR

https://www.illinoiswildflowers.info/trees/plants/false_indigo.htm