Baptisia albescens

Product Info

Spiked White Wild Indigo (Baptisia albescens)
Legume Family

Six inch spikes of white flowers contrast beautifully with the smoky, grayish-purple flower stalks. Flowering begins in May and last just a few weeks. The foliage of this plant will continue to give color and texture in the garden until seed pods are developed in late summer. Light brown, inflated, cylindrical pods are full of dozens of shiny, hard seeds. Best form and flower will occur in full sun, but they are also quite shade tolerant and very drought tolerant. Like other Baptisia species, it will take ~3 years before it flowers and a few more years to reach maturity. Don’t overcrowd this plant early on before it develops. Groundcover-like plants can be used around the base as it matures and to fill the empty space below when it is mature. Very effective as a specimen plant.

Blooms: White, 2-3 weeks, May-June
Leaves: Blue-green trifoliate leaves are bushy
Height: 2-3’
Space: 2-3’
Soil: Average-Moist-Dry, not very picky
Exposure:  Full sun-Part sun-Part shade
Fauna: Bees, Butterflies, host to several butterfly and moth species
Seeds: Very attractive inflated bean pod-like seeds turn light brown when ripe
Deer Resistance: Medium
Zone: 3-10
Native Status: NC Native, uncommon in the Piedmont, rare in the Mountains
Provenance: NC ecotype, seed grown