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Georgia Indigobush

Amorpha georgiana

Also called Georgia leadplant, Georgia false indigo.

One of the rarest shrubs of the South, a low indigobush of sandy pinelands whose dark purple spring spikes bristle with orange-tipped stamens.

RareShowy flowersNitrogen fixingTolerates wet soilWildlife value

Type: Shrub
Mature height: 1–3 ft
USDA zones: 8–9
Growth rate: Slow
Sun: Full, Part
Soil moisture: Average, Wet
Grows wild in: Sandy barrens, stream banks, old fields and edges
Native range: Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina See what is native in your state

Hardiness zones Find your zone by ZIP code

Georgia indigobush is a low, woody plant of the Coastal Plain of the Carolinas and Georgia, where it grows in longleaf pine woods and on sandy river terraces. Each leaf carries up to 47 small leaflets, each rolled under at the edge and ending in a tiny point. NatureServe ranks it critically imperiled, with about 16 wild populations left. Georgia and North Carolina list it as endangered. Plant it in a sunny, sandy bed of native grasses and wildflowers, where nothing taller shades it out.

Size, growth and what to expect

No source rates its growth, so our growth estimator treats it as a slow grower, like our leadplant, about a foot a year. It makes a woody plant 1 to 3 feet tall with smooth stems, and it spreads by underground stems into patches. Its leaves run up to 7 inches long.

Spikes up to about 3 inches long open from mid April into early May. Each small flower has one dark purple petal and ten stamens tipped in orange. Like other amorphas, it bears pods under a quarter inch long that usually hold a single seed. They ripen light brown in mid to late summer, and some stay on until the next April.

It grows wild only on the Coastal Plain of North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia. Its home is sandy river terraces, pine flatwoods and savannas, and sunny clearings. Most of its wild populations are in North Carolina, and fire suppression and pine plantations threaten them.

How to grow Georgia Indigobush

Georgia indigobush wants full sun or light shade and a sandy soil that stays moist but drains. In the wild it grows on river terraces that flood now and then, and in pine woods kept open by fire. Taller shrubs crowd it out, so give it an open spot. Set plants 3 feet apart and 3 feet from a wall. At its size it can go within 15 feet of overhead wires.

Saplings ship bare-root or potted. Plant them dormant, in a hole wider than the roots and no deeper. Set the crown at the soil line, put the native soil back in, and keep the mulch thin and clear of the stems. Seed has a hard coat that the heat of a fire opens in the wild. Rub the seed out of its pod, then soak it briefly in water just off the boil. Sow it about a quarter inch deep in spring.

Water weekly through the first summer. Deer and other browsers eat the leaves, which are rich in protein, so cage young plants where deer are common. Keep taller neighbors cut back so it stays in sun.

Each flower carries both male and female parts, so there are no male and female plants to pair. Pearl crescent butterflies and other insects visit the flowers. In the wild it flowers and fruits in the first and second years after a fire, and it dwindles where fire is kept out. It can cross with clusterspike indigobush where the two grow together.

Heights and zones are typical ranges for the species in cultivation; local conditions and seed source shift them.

Sources (10)