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Amorpha fruticosa
Bastard False Indigo
False Indigo Bush
River-locust
Florida native
A frequent deciduous shrub of hammocks and stream banks throughout most of Florida. The range includes the United States except for Montana and Nevada, plus New Brunswick, Quebec, Ontario and Manitoba,
Growing with a shrubby habit up to 4m (13 ft.) tall, this member of the pea family has a corolla that is reduced to one petal, equivalent to the standard on a typical Fabaceae flower. The leaves are alternate, odd-pinnately compound and 1-3dm (4-12 in.) long. There are 9 to 35 leaflets per leaf, each being elliptic, oblong or lanceolate, 1-5cm long and 0.5-3cm wide. The leaflets are often densely pubescent and marked with dots or depressions of glands. The flowers appear in mid to late spring in dense, elongated racemes to 2dm (8 in.) long with showy golden-yellow anthers extending from deep blue or purple petals. The fruit is a small, curved pod about 8mm (5/16 in.) long with one seed.
Amorpha fruticosa is a member of the Fabaceae - Pea family.
Atlas of Florida Vascular Plants (Institute for Systemic Botany) profile for this species
USDA Plant Profile for this species
Date record last modified: Oct 06, 2021
