IMPORTANT WESTERN BROWSE PLANTS 83 
A number of the species are now cultivated as ornamentals, the rich 
blues and violets of the solitary petals, with the golden-yellow 
anthers, making a vivid combination. 
The generic type is the indigobush (A. fruticosa), which ranges 
from Pennsylvania to Florida, Chihuahua, Saskatchewan, and Min- 
nesota, mostly along or near streams or in canyons, mainly in sandy 
loam soils. When in sterile condition indigobush is often mistaken 
for a kind of locust (Robinia)—whence the local name, river locust, 
for the species. It is said that the early settlers used this shrub as 
a substitute for true indigo (/ndigofera tinctoria of the Old World) 
and American indigo (J. suffruticosa, syn. I. anil, of tropical 
America). 
California indigobush (A. californica), often locally known as 
stinking willow, is a shrub 3 to 10 or more feet high, occurring be- 
tween elevations of 3,500 to 5,500 feet from about the latitude of 
San Francisco south into Lower California and east to New Mex- 
ico. It has an acrid pungent disagreeable odor and does not appear 
to be touched by livestock. It is said to have been usefully employed 
in the Southwest as a windbreak. : 
Leadplant (A. canescens), known also as downy amorpha, false 
greasewood, shoestrings, and wild tea, and widely distributed from 
Manitoba and Michigan to Louisiana and New Mexico, is a low, 
mostly spreading bush, 1 to 4 feet high. The species usually occurs 
locally and scatteringly, mostly on dry plains and hills, and is grazed 
sparingly by cattle and horses. There is a local superstition in many 
places that the presence of this plant indicates the existence of lead 
ore (72), but the common name, leadplant, appears to refer rather 
to a plumbic hue than habitat (74). It is a handsome plant, espe- 
cially when in bloom, and is often cultivated as an ornamental. 
Dwarf indigobush (A. nana, syn. A. microphylla), or dwarf- 
indigo, seldom over 1 foot high, is a smooth and nearly hairless spe- 
cies, with mostly solitary spikes of fragrant flowers, ranging from 
Manitoba, Minnesota, and Jowa to Colorado and Idaho, usually in 
the plains but sometimes in the mountains up to about 9,000 feet. 
Desert indigobush (A. occidentalis, but merged by some botanists 
with A. fruticosa and by others with A. fragrans), locally known 
as Arizona spicebush (fig. 21), is a fragrant-flowered shrub 4 to 
10 feet high, occurring from southern California to Arizona and 
probably south into Mexico. While it is probably of low value, it 
should be closely watched as possibly a poisonous plant. 
PEABUSHES (PAROSELA SPP., SYNS. DALEA (L.) JUSS., NOT P. BROWN NOR 
GAERTN., PSORODENDRON, PSOROTHAMNUS) 
This is a genus, largely herbaceous and mostly Mexican, of about 
150 species confined to the Western Hemisphere, especially in the 
warmer, drier regions. About 50 species are found in the West, 
whereof approximately 22 are shrubs and one is usually a small tree. 
The glandular foliage of the peabushes betokens active chemical 
properties but their economic significance is almost unknown. The 
Latin name, Parosela, obviously an anagram of Psoralea, suggests 
the very close relationship of the two genera (which were, in fact, 
united by the early botanists) and indicates the desirability of watch- 
ing peabushes closely on the range if they occur there in quantity, 
