Baptisia cinerea
Baptisia sphaerocarpa
grayhairy wild indigo
green wild indigo, round wild indigo, yellow wild indigo
blackening upon drying, petiolate;
stipules mostly deciduous, lanceolate, 10–30 mm;
petiole 5–14 mm;
leaflets 3, blades oval to broadly oblanceolate.
petiolate;
stipules deciduous, subulate, 4–16 mm;
petiole 1–4 mm;
leaflets 3 to mid stem, or 1 or 2 distally, blades obovate or elliptic to oblanceolate.
5–20-flowered, axillary, secund, bracteate, bracts deciduous.
5+-flowered, terminal, stiffly erect, bracteate, bracts caducous.
4–8 mm.
2–5 mm.
21–29 mm;
calyx 6–8 mm, glabrous or puberulent;
corolla yellow, 20–28 mm.
18–22 mm;
calyx 7–9 mm, glabrous;
corolla bright yellow, 16–20 mm.
ascending, ovoid, 20–30 × 6–10 mm, papery to ± woody.
ascending to spreading, suborbicular, 7–11 × 7–11 mm, woody, glabrous.
2–4.
2–4(–6).
= 18.
Baptisia cinerea
Baptisia sphaerocarpa
Baptisia cinerea closely resembles B. bracteata; the floral bracts in B. cinerea are deciduous (versus persistent in B. bracteata), pedicels are shorter (4–8 versus 10–18 mm), legumes are smaller (2–3 versus 3–4 cm) with appressed (versus spreading) hairs, and leaflets are larger and readily blacken upon drying.
Baptisia cinerea and B. bracteata are essentially allopatric. Hybrids between B. cinerea and other species of Baptisia have not been reported; occasional hybrids between B. cinerea and others (for example, B. lactea) would not be surprising.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Baptisia sphaerocarpa forms hybrids with B. lactea, B. leucophaea (B. × intermedia Larisey [= B. × bushii Small and B. × stricta Larisey]), and B. nuttalliana. Baptisia × bushii was treated as a species by M. M. Larisey (1940). Baptisia × intermedia, as described by Larisey, was said to be a hybrid of B. leucophaea var. glabrescens Larisey and B. viridis, which is treated here as synonymous with B. sphaerocarpa. Interestingly, these three hybrids (B. × bushii, B. × intermedia, and B. × stricta) key out in adjacent couplets in the treatment by Larisey.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
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