Baptisia tinctoria - Yellow Wild Indigo

Sizes available: TBD, coming in August, 2026

Basics: zones 3-9, full to part sun, 24"+ x 24"+, yellow to pale yellow-cream in mid-summer, wants medium moist to dry, lean, sandy or loamy soils with good drainage.

Common names: Yellow Wild Indigo, Yellow False Indigo

Family: Fabaceae

Origin/Distribution: eastern North America, native to the southern tip of Maine and the rest of New England. This plant is widely distributed but endangered in some of it's range, including Maine, so if you have a sunny, low-nutrition, well-drained site, please grow this.

Habitat: dry meadow, open and lean woodlands, sandy soils, sandhills

More: B. tinctoria is host to numerous butterfly and moth larvae including the Io moth (Automeris io), the Frosted Elfin (Callophrys irus) and the Wild Indigo Duskywing Skipper (Erynnis baptisiae) all of which call Maine their home. Flowers later than other Baptisias, nitrogen fixer, sensitive to juglone, deer resistant, and also as a substitute for Indigo (Indigofera tinctoria) in making blue dye. I imagine it makes a good addition to the vase, both the leaves and flowers, but my plants are not large enough to test that out yet. Like all Baptisias a bit slow to get going as it develops its taproot and resents being transplanted once established. The root has been used medicinally, but this plant is also potentially toxic, so proceed with caution. 

Source: Landscape plugs from New Moon Nursery

Image credit: single flower from Wikimedia Commons; overall plant form from Jelitto Staudensamen GmbH; illustration from Wikimedia Commons