''Baptisia bracteata'', otherwise known as longbract wild indigo, long-bract wild indigo, long-bracted wild indigo, plains wild indigo, cream false indigo, or cream wild indigo, is a perennial herbaceous plant in the ''

Fabaceae The Fabaceae or Leguminosae,International Code of Nomenc ...

'' (bean) family that is native to the central and eastern United States. It is one of the earliest blooming species of ''

Baptisia ''Baptisia'' (wild indigo, false indigo) is a genus in the legume family, Fabaceae. They are flowering herbaceous perennial plants with pea-like flowers, followed by pods, which are sometimes inflated. They are native to woodland and grassland in ...

'', beginning to bloom in March in certain areas of the United States. The flower clusters (

raceme A raceme ( or ) or racemoid is an unbranched, indeterminate type of inflorescence bearing flowers having short floral stalks along the shoots that bear the flowers. The oldest flowers grow close to the base and new flowers are produced as the s ...

s) spread out sideways or sprawl across the ground, unlike most other ''

'' species, which have vertical racemes.

Description

''Baptisia bracteata'' grows as one or more stems from its root system, up to tall. It is a bushy plant with stems that branch occasionally, and it can be up to wide. The stems are round and light green to purple. Leaves are arranged alternately along the stem and are divided into 3 leaflets, which are long and across. They have smooth margins and are usually oblanceolate in shape. The inflorescence is a long raceme, long, drooping below the foliage due to its weight. Each raceme has few to many pea-type flowers and leaflike, lanceolate bracts, long. The bloom color ranges from white to creamy yellow. After blooming, oval to cylindrical seed pods that are are formed.

Etymology

The genus name ''Baptisia'' comes from the Greek word meaning "to dye". The specific epithet ''bracteata'' is from a Latin word meaning "having bracts".

Distribution and habitat

''B. bracteata'' is native in the United States from Minnesota to the north, Texas to the west and south, and North Carolina to the east. It can be found in prairies, rocky woods, fields, and along streams.

Ecology

The flowers bloom April to June and are pollinated by

bumblebees A bumblebee (or bumble bee, bumble-bee, or humble-bee) is any of over 250 species in the genus ''Bombus'', part of Apidae, one of the bee families. This genus is the only extant group in the tribe Bombini, though a few extinct related gener ...

, which are active making their nests at this time. The caterpillars of several skippers eat the leaves, including the

wild indigo duskywing ''Erynnis baptisiae'', the wild indigo duskywing, is a butterfly of the family Hesperiidae. It is found in North America from southern New England and southern Ontario west to central Nebraska, south to Georgia, the Gulf Coast, and south-centr ...

and hoary edge. The plant is poisonous to mammalian herbivores.

References

External links

{{Taxonbar, from=Q15525390 Flora of the Eastern United States Sophoreae