Carolina Indigo - Indigofera caroliniana

Carolina indigo (Indigofera caroliniana) is found statewide and in much of the Southeast Coastal Plain from Louisiana to North Carolina.  It is a member of the genus that contains true indigo - used for generations by peoples as a dye plant.  Carolina indigo was used sparingly by early European colonists in this way Most members of this genus are not native to Florida, but Carolina indigo is native to a wide variety of xeric upland sites - especially those that have been subjected to some soil disturbance.  

This is an herbaceous perennial that dies back to the ground in winter and reemerges in the early spring.  Its basal stems become slightly woody. Eventually it reaches its mature height of 3-6 feet in early summer. The plants are rounded in aspect and may be 2-3 feet wide. Like many legumes, it has compound leaves. Each is composed of numerous rounded elliptical leaflets.  

Flowering occurs in early summer on short flower stalks that occur along the many stems. Each stalk produces up to a dozen salmon-colored blossoms with a typical legume structure - a fused lower lip and an upright keel above.  Each flower is only about 1/3 inch long and is pollinated mostly by bees.  Carolina indigo serves as a host for the Ceraunus blue and the Zarucco duskywing butterfly. As such, it is a useful addition to a butterfly/pollinator garden.  It also serves as a soil nitrogen fixer.

Though this widely distributed wildflower has many attributes to warrant its addition to the home landscape, I am not aware of it ever being propagated by members of FANN - the Florida Association of Native Nurseries.  I have not found it offered outside of Florida either.  Carolina indigo can be propagated by seed, but germination is improved greatly by scarifying the hard seed coat - either by physically nicking it or by pouring hot water over them.  It also sometimes suckers and these can be moved.