WHITE FALSE INDIGO 



Baptisia leucantha T. ^ G. 



May - June 



Prairie roadsides, sands 



In the days before amino compounds were 

 discovered to produce pure dyes without the 

 aid of plants, the world's supply of blue dyes 

 came from several plants native to Africa and Asia. Indigo became a 

 fortune-making crop plant. People who were fired with the knowledge 

 that the indigo plant<itions of the south were bringing their owners gi^eat 

 wealth, searched for other plants which also would give forth that price- 

 less blue dye. 



Of all the wild American plants wliieh were examined and used to 

 produce indigo dye, the white false indigos of several species Avere most 

 satisfactory. But no fortune was made from those wild plants. The quality 

 of the dye was poor, the plants were not abundant enough in the wild 

 and they were not adaptable quickly to cultivation. 



But the white false indigo i^lants still grow wild in America ; they 

 are fairly common in Illinois. In late May the tall and elegant spikes 

 stand erect al)0ve the bushy plants. The spike of flowers, often from one 

 to two feet tall and closely set with white, pea-shaped blossoms, is iden- 

 tified as far away as it can be seen ; oiily the white false indigo in Illinois 

 has that long wand of white blossoms, that loosely-leafy, bushy ])lant. 



The plant is branched, sniootli, with grey-green, oval, kid-skin 

 leaflets arranged in trios over the stems. When the leaves, stems, flowers, 

 or fruits are bruised or broken, the skin turns blue — the ancient char- 

 acteristic which gave V\c false indigo its name and put it in tlie pages 

 of American history. 



White false ind'"'o is founl In spirlv ficM-:. on prniric slopes, upland 



pastures, and in the 



..•-) IS 



r.'gin: 



on prninc 



ir;;ii:o soil n!()ii<r iTulroad tracks. 



117 



