Dull-leaf Indigo (Amorpha fruticosa)
- Family: Pea (Fabaceae)
- Flowering: April-June.
- Field Marks: This shrub is distinguished by its leaves with 11-27 leaflets, its dense spikes of small, deep purple flowers, and its curved, glandular pods about 1/3 inch long.
- Habitat: Along rivers and streams, wet woods, around ponds.
- Habit: Shrub.
- Stems: Erect, much branched, smooth or somewhat hairy, up to 12 feet tall.
- Leaves: Alternate, pinnately divided into 11-27 leaflets, the leaflets oblong to elliptic, rounded at the tip except for a short mucro, rounded or tapering to the base, smooth or hairy, without teeth, up to 2 inches long.
- Flowers: Many crowded into erect racemes up to 8 inches long, dark purple.
- Sepals: 5, unequal in size, green, united to form a short, usually hairy cup.
- Petals: 1, purple, about 1/4 inch long.
- Stamens: 10, protruding above the petals.
- Pistils: Ovary superior.
- Fruits: Pods about 1/3 inch long, curved, smooth, glandular-dotted, containing 1-2 seeds.
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