Cream Wild Indigo

Cream Wild Indigo (Baptisia bracteata var. leucophaea, formerly Baptisia leucophaea) is a distinctive native perennial of the central United States, ranging from Wisconsin south to Texas. It is a sprawling, herbaceous plant that looks like a small bush, with palmately compound trifoliate leaves and a large taproot that makes it essentially permanent once settled but very difficult to transplant. Unlike its blue-flowered relatives, its flowering stems droop over and hang toward the ground, carrying dull yellow to cream flowers about an inch across along long racemes in early spring.

The blooms give way to large, fleshy seed pods with an obvious beak at the tip; when dry they turn black and crack open to release kidney-shaped seeds. The stiff, gray-green foliage holds its structural character long after bloom.

In the wild it grows in prairies and savannas, preferring open sun with little competition from larger perennials, and occurs in abundance in areas that have not been grazed. In the garden it needs full sun and sharp drainage, and looks best as a specimen or massed in a naturalistic prairie planting alongside coneflowers, phlox, and butterfly weed. Do not move it once established.