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Baptisia lactea, ½-pint plug
Exposure: Full-Partial Sun
Soil: Medium Wet- Dry
Mature Height: 5 feet
Blooms: June, July
Notable Features: White Wild Indigo has
striking charcoal-gray stems, blue-green leaves and pea-like blossoms forming
on long spikes, making it quite showy, but without floral scent. New sprouts
can be mistaken for asparagus when they push from the ground in spring. After
the first frost, the entire shrub-like plant turns black, adding a stunning
contrast to the copper-color of Little Bluestem, or the remaining yellow
of Showy Goldenrod in a fall landscape. New plants will spend a few years
developing their root structure, so be patient for year 3 when this plant will
start to develop more top growth. Plants in the Baptisia genus are “nitrogen
fixers,” meaning they’re able to take nitrogen out of the atmosphere and
transfer it to their roots, where it becomes converted to a usable form in the
soil. WHOA. This is basically free fertilizer, except it’s not in a bag that
you have to buy at Ace Hardware. Previous Latin name in use was Baptisia alba. Thanks for keeping it
confusing, botanical-name-decision makers.
Attracts: Worker bumblebees pollinate the flowers. The caterpillars of some skippers and butterflies occasionally feed on the foliage, including Erynnis baptisiae (Wild Indigo Duskywing), Achelerus lyciades (Hoary Edge), Colias cesonia (Southern Dogface), and Colias eurythema (Orange Sulfur). The caterpillars of the moth Dasylophus anguina (Black-spotted Prominent) can also be found on the foliage. Another insect, Apion rostrum (Wild Indigo Weevil), feeds on this plant and other Baptisia species. The adult weevils eat both the leaves and flowers, while their grubs stay in the pods and eat the seeds.
