LEGUMINOSAE PULSE FAMILY 
FALSE INDIGO 
Amorpha fruticosa L. 
The False Indigo is a beautiful shrub suitable for ornamental 
planting. It grows 5-20 feet tall along streams and in other 
moist places from Pennsylvania to Florida and west to Sas- 
katchewan and 
Texas. It is found 
in some places in the 
Rocky mountain 
region. 
The young 
branches are green- 
ish and somewhat 
velvety, becoming 
gray or brown and 
smooth as they get 
older: . The «9-25 
leaflets, usually 
somewhat hairy un- 
til mature, have two 
forms of arrange- 
ment. Frequently 
all but the terminal 
one are opposite in 
pairs, or they may 
be alternate as 
shown. 
The flowers of 
most members of 
the Pulse family have 5 petals but those of the False Indigo have 
only 1. This single petal is purple and is wrapped around the 
stamens and pistil. The funnelform calyx has § short lobes or 
teeth, and persists on the fruit. The 10 stamens are united at the 
very base but are otherwise distinct. The pistil develops into a 
rather rough 1 or 2-seeded pod. 
The Lead Plant, Amorpha canescens Pursh, is also common in 
Illinois on hills and prairies and along railroads. It is a smaller 
shrub, 1-3 feet tall, and densely covered with white hairs. The 
leaflets are smaller and more numerous, being 21-51. The flowers 
are blue in densely clustered spikes 2-7 inches long. ‘The pod is 
1-seeded. 
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