Baptisia australis var. minor Dark Blue - False Indigo

Baptisia australis var. minor 'Dark Blue' is a variety of rarely cultivated Indigo Lupin that is characterized by low vegetation and large, beautifully coloured deep blue-violet flowers. This plant blooms in late spring, above a dense leafy tuft, adorned with attractive green-blue clover-like foliage, even when not in bloom. Its fruit, in the form of black pods, is an additional attraction in summer. A bit slow to establish, this perennial is undemanding, very long-lived, and can tolerate summer drought once well established.

Baptisia australis var. minor 'Dark Blue' is a perennial plant of the Fabaceae family related to Baptisia australis, native to the central United States. It differs mainly by shorter stems, shorter leaves, and larger flowers. All Baptisias grow spontaneously in meadows and woods, usually on non-calcareous soil, among tall grasses, without care, perfectly enduring frost and dry summers. They can live up to 100 years.

The 'Dark Blue' variety has an upright tufted habit in its young age, spreading over time, reaching an average height of 50cm (20in), with a spread of 60cm (24in). Its growth is slow. Flowering takes place in June, in the form of branched papilionaceous flower spikes reaching about 35cm (14in). Each flower blooms from a dark purple bud, then opens up in blue-violet. The fruit of this Baptisia is a green pod that turns black when ripe. The foliage, which disappears in winter, is also very ornamental as it sways in the wind. It consists of leaves divided into three rounded leaflets, resembling those of alfalfa or clover. This plant develops from a particular root system, which dives very deep into the soil to extract and transform nutrients thanks to the presence of symbiotic bacteria lodged in small nodules. Like all fabaceae, this baptisia contributes to enriching the soil it inhabits.

Baptisias are close relatives of lupins, which are much better known in Europe, but they are much less demanding in terms of moisture. They share a preference for acidic soils. Anchored on very robust stumps, they can live a long time in our gardens but require time to establish. A true all-terrain plant, the 'Dark Blue' false indigo will find its place in a romantic garden, a dry garden, or in natural areas, for example with Linaria 'Peachy', the sainfoin, and the Indigofera gerardiana. It is also very useful for decorating a degraded terrain, which often surrounds a recently built house. It is also stunning when accompanied by shrubby salvias, dwarf buddleias, Agastaches, Penstemons, and other thistles.

The vernacular name 'false indigo' comes from the use that some Native American peoples made of these dye plants. Indeed, they provide colouring pigments comparable to those of true indigos (from the Antillean genus Indigofera), but of lesser quality.