Blue wild indigo (baptisia australis)

Blue Wild Indigo (Baptisia australis)

Blue Wild Indigo is a robust and architectural perennial, celebrated for its graceful form and early-season presence. Emerging in spring with smoky blue-green foliage, it creates a sculptural silhouette from the outset - dense, upright, and artfully arranged. As the season progresses, tall spires of dusky indigo to violet-blue blossoms rise above the foliage. In our garden, it's among the first of the full-sun plants to bloom but the foliage never looks tired or worn through the heat of summer. After flowering, it produces distinctive black seed pods that rattle in the wind, offering seasonal interest well into winter. Though it takes time to mature, this plant is deeply resilient and long-lived, thriving in tough soils with little care and forming an almost shrub-like mass that anchors any planting.

Growing Conditions

• Light: Full sun to light shade

• Soil: Medium to dry, well-drained soils; tolerates clay and poor soils

• Height: 3–4 feet

• Spread: 2-3 feet

• Zones: 3–9

• Bloom time: May to June

Wildlife Value
Blue Wild Indigo is a larval host for the Wild Indigo Duskywing (Erynnis baptisiae), a skipper butterfly found in southern Wisconsin. Its nectar-rich flowers attract bumblebees and other long-tongued native pollinators.

Blooms Alongside: Ohio spiderwort (transcantia ohiensis), meadow anemone (anemone canadensis), white wild indigo (baptisia alba), hairy beardtongue (penstemon hirsutus), prairie alumroot (heuchera Richardsonii)