Flora of North America species comparison

The green links below add additional plants to the comparison table. Blue links lead to other Web sites.
enable glossary links

Baptisia sphaerocarpa

Baptisia lactea

green wild indigo, round wild indigo, yellow wild indigo

western white indigo
Habit Herbs erect, to 1 m, glabrescent. Herbs to 2 m, glabrous.
Leaves

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.

petiolate;

stipules caducous, lanceolate, 2–8 mm;

petiole 5–15 mm;

leaflets 3, blades obovate.
Racemes

5+-flowered, terminal, stiffly erect, bracteate, bracts caducous.

8–20-flowered, terminal, stiffly erect, ebracteate.
Pedicels

2–5 mm.

3–10 mm.
Flowers

18–22 mm;

calyx 7–9 mm, glabrous;

corolla bright yellow, 16–20 mm.

18–25 mm;

calyx 7–8 mm, glabrous;

corolla white, 16–23 mm.
Legumes

ascending to spreading, suborbicular, 7–11 × 7–11 mm, woody, glabrous.

black in age, ascending to spreading-pendent, plump, ellipsoid-cylindric, 23–50 × 10–30 mm, smooth.
Seeds

2–4(–6).

20–30.
2n

= 18.

Baptisia sphaerocarpa

Baptisia lactea
Phenology Flowering Apr–May.
Habitat Mostly clay or silty-clay soils.
Elevation 10–200 m. (0–700 ft.)
Distribution
from FNA
LA; MO; MS; OK; TX
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
from USDA
c United States; se United States
Discussion

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.)

Varieties 2 (2 in the flora).

Baptisia lactea forms hybrids with B. lanceolata, B. nuttalliana, B. sphaerocarpa (B. × sulphurea Engelmann), and B. tinctoria (B. × deamii Larisey).

Peripheral intergradation between var. lactea and var. pendula occurs (hence their treatment as varieties); they are not known to co-occur at present.

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Key
1. Legumes 10–15 mm wide; mature stipes about as long as calyces; c United States.
var. lactea
1. Legumes 15–30 mm wide; mature stipes much longer than calyces; se United States.
var. pendula
Source FNA vol. 11. FNA vol. 11.
Parent taxa Fabaceae > subfam. Faboideae > Baptisia Fabaceae > subfam. Faboideae > Baptisia
Sibling taxa
B. alba, B. arachnifera, B. australis, B. bracteata, B. calycosa, B. cinerea, B. hirsuta, B. lactea, B. lanceolata, B. lecontei, B. leucophaea, B. megacarpa, B. nuttalliana, B. perfoliata, B. simplicifolia, B. tinctoria
B. alba, B. arachnifera, B. australis, B. bracteata, B. calycosa, B. cinerea, B. hirsuta, B. lanceolata, B. lecontei, B. leucophaea, B. megacarpa, B. nuttalliana, B. perfoliata, B. simplicifolia, B. sphaerocarpa, B. tinctoria
Subordinate taxa
B. lactea var. lactea, B. lactea var. pendula
Synonyms B. viridis Dolichos lacteus
Name authority Nuttall: J. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia 7: 97. (1834) (Rafinesque) Thieret: Sida 3: 446. (1969)
Web links 
Unless otherwise noted, all data comes from the online version of the Flora of North America, who have made most of their content available via a Creative Commons license (CC BY 4.0).



Type/paste one or more Latin names into the boxes above; matching taxa will show up below the box as you type. You can use the up/down arrow keys to move through the list.

(If the plant you're looking for doesn't show up in the auto-complete list, that means it either isn't described in Flora of North America yet, or it's listed under a synonym. And please note that Flora of North America is still missing several plant families, including Fabaceae, Apiaceae, Boraginaceae, and Polemoniaceae.)

Choose a data source: Flora of North America

The species comparison tool is brought to you by:
Northwest Wildflowers