# Leadplant (Amorpha canescens)

> A prairie sub-shrub with silver leaves and purple summer spikes, rooted deep against drought.

Also called lead plant, prairie shoestring. Category: Native Shrubs. Grown from seed by Blue Whale Trees. Web version: https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/leadplant/

![Leadplant (Amorpha canescens) purple flower spike and gray-green pinnate leaves](https://bluewhaletrees.com/img/plants/leadplant-h1610-800.jpg)
*Photo: NPS Photo, Public domain · [Wikimedia Commons](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:File-Scientific_name-_Amorpha_canescens_-_native;-Alternate_names-_Leadplant_amorpha,_prairie_shoestring,_buffalo_bellows,_downy_%28a6a5bb7d-3f1c-4c3c-9c50-565bd74c8e13%29.JPG)*

## Facts

- Type: Shrub
- Mature height: 1 to 3 ft
- USDA hardiness zones: 2 to 8
- Grows wild in: Dry uplands and rocky ground
- Native range: 19 states, north to [North Dakota](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=ND), south to [Louisiana](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=LA), east to [Michigan](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=MI) and west to [Montana](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=MT) ([Arkansas](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=AR), [Colorado](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=CO), [Illinois](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=IL), [Indiana](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=IN), [Iowa](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=IA), [Kansas](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=KS), [Louisiana](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=LA), [Michigan](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=MI), [Minnesota](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=MN), [Missouri](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=MO), [Montana](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=MT), [Nebraska](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=NE), [New Mexico](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=NM), [North Dakota](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=ND), [Oklahoma](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=OK), [South Dakota](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=SD), [Texas](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=TX), [Wisconsin](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=WI) and [Wyoming](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=WY))
- Sun: Full
- Soil moisture: Dry
- Growth rate: Slow
- Flowers: June to July
- Fruit: Pods, August to September
- First crop: About 4 years
- Mature spread: 3 ft
- Traits: Showy flowers, Wildlife value, Drought tolerant, Nitrogen fixing, Rare, Erosion control, Bears young
- Sold as: Saplings, Seed

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

## Availability

Saplings ship [bare-root](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/planting-bare-root-trees-on-arrival/index.html.md) or [in a pot](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/a-sapling-in-a-pot/index.html.md), [usually 12 to 18 inches tall](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/small-sapling-or-big-transplant/index.html.md), in the dormant season, and their [height and age](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/reading-a-nursery-listing/index.html.md) are stated with the price, once available. Live plants ship February to May and October to November. Not priced yet: leave an email on the web page for one email when it is priced, with a code for 10% off the plants in that order, not shipping or tax, or write to captain@bluewhaletrees.com.

In bundles: Dry Sandy Site Pack.

## Notes

Leadplant is a defining plant of tallgrass prairie, slow to establish but nearly immortal once its taproot is down. Silvery gray foliage, purple flowers in July for bees and butterflies, and total drought tolerance make it ideal for dry sunny beds, rock gardens and prairie restorations. Its deep, branching, woody roots knit the soil against erosion. Made for a curb strip or the front row of a pollinator bed on gravel.

## Size, growth and what to expect

Leadplant is slow above ground, and our growth estimator models it at a few inches a year on an average site, slowing as it nears full size. Restoration researchers report slow growth because the plant puts its effort into a root that reaches 7 to 20 feet down. Mature plants stand 1 to 3 feet tall and spread 2 to 2½ feet. The stems die back each year and sprout again from a woody crown. Seedlings take about 4 years to reach flowering.

A grown plant can carry up to 30 flowering stems and 3,000 flowers in late June and July. Solitary bees are its main pollinators, and the endangered Karner blue butterfly takes its nectar. Each small pod holds one seed. The name comes from the leaves, which look dusted with lead under their fine gray hairs. Cattle and browsing wildlife find it highly palatable, so it needs protection.

It grows wild across most of the Great Plains, from Manitoba south to Texas and from Indiana west to Wyoming and New Mexico, on well-drained prairies, rocky bluffs and open woods.

## How to grow Leadplant

Leadplant is a full sun, dry soil plant and nothing else will do. It needs drainage above all. A bed that stays damp, or one watered with the lawn, rots the crown. It belongs at the front, 2 feet apart, among low neighbors.

Saplings ship bare-root or potted. Plant while dormant. Small plants take hold better than large ones, because the taproot goes down early and hates being cut. Dig a little wider than the roots, set the crown at grade, and refill with the soil you removed. Use a thin gritty mulch or a scatter of gravel, kept off the crown. Nothing this size needs a stake. Nick the hard coat and sow seed in fall in a screened bed, expecting slow, uneven germination.

Water the first summer, then stop. Deer and rabbits find leadplant delicious, so cage every new plant two years at least, longer where deer press hard. Cut old stems back to a few inches in late winter to keep it tight.

Leadplant sets seed only with pollen from another plant, so plant two or more seedlings from different parents. Almost nothing shows above ground for two or three years while the root drives down, and that is normal rather than failure. Rich soil and fertilizer only make it flop.

## Sources

- [USDA Fire Effects Information System, Amorpha canescens](https://www.fs.usda.gov/database/feis/plants/shrub/amocan/all.html)
- [Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center, Amorpha canescens](https://www.wildflower.org/plants/result.php?id_plant=amca6)
- [NC State Extension Gardener Plant Toolbox, Amorpha canescens](https://plants.ces.ncsu.edu/plants/amorpha-canescens/)
- [USDA NRCS PLANTS Database: Amorpha canescens](https://plants.usda.gov/plant-profile/AMCA6)
- [USDA NRCS Plant Guide: leadplant, Amorpha canescens](https://plants.sc.egov.usda.gov/DocumentLibrary/plantguide/pdf/pg_amca6.pdf)
- [Slagle and Hendrix 2009, Reproduction of Amorpha canescens (Fabaceae) and diversity of its bee community in a fragmented landscape, Oecologia 161: 813-823](https://doi.org/10.1007/s00442-009-1429-3)
- [The Morton Arboretum: leadplant](https://mortonarb.org/plant-and-protect/trees-and-plants/leadplant/)
- [NatureServe Explorer: Amorpha canescens](https://explorer.natureserve.org/Taxon/ELEMENT_GLOBAL.2.161544/Amorpha_canescens)
- [Minnesota Wildflowers: Amorpha canescens, lead plant](https://www.minnesotawildflowers.info/shrub/lead-plant)
- [USDA Forest Service, Woody Plant Seed Manual (2008), Amorpha chapter, Zasada and Martineau](https://www.fs.usda.gov/nsl/Wpsm/Amorpha.pdf)

## Read before planting

- [Ten planting mistakes that quietly kill trees](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/ten-planting-mistakes/index.html.md)
- [Transplanting young trees: timing, water and protection](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/transplanting-young-trees/index.html.md)
- [Protecting young trees from voles, rabbits, deer and squirrels](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/protecting-trees-from-animals/index.html.md)
- [Native trees and shrubs for dry, sandy soil: the plants of barrens and dunes, and how to grow them](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/native-trees-and-shrubs-for-dry-sandy-soil/index.html.md)
- [Native trees and shrubs that fix nitrogen, and the legumes that do not](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/native-trees-and-shrubs-that-fix-nitrogen/index.html.md)
- [The habitat around a tree is part of the tree](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/habitat-around-a-tree/index.html.md)

## Related

- We grow 7 other indigobushes (Amorpha): [all of them](https://bluewhaletrees.com/shop/index.html.md?q=amorpha)
- Plants that share its sun and soil: [Saskatoon](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/saskatoon/index.html.md), [Common Juniper](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/common-juniper/index.html.md), [Roundleaf Serviceberry](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/roundleaf-serviceberry/index.html.md) and [Clove Currant](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/clove-currant/index.html.md)
- Same size, similar character: [Clusterspike Indigobush](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/clusterspike-indigobush/index.html.md), [Mountain Indigobush](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/mountain-indigobush/index.html.md), [Indigobush (False Indigo)](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/indigobush/index.html.md) and [Shining Indigobush](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/shining-indigobush/index.html.md)
- [Planting-site check](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/site-check/index.html.md): for a thrive, struggle or fail verdict on Leadplant, add ?species=leadplant with zone (2 to 10), sun (full, part, shade) and moisture (dry, average, wet) to that address; for example, the verdict for zone 2, part sun and average soil as Markdown is at https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/site-check/index.html.md?species=leadplant&zone=2&sun=part&moisture=average
- [Companion species for Leadplant](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/companions/index.html.md?species=leadplant): the natives that share its ground and the plants that pair with it in a yard.
- [Tree growth estimator](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/growth/index.html.md): how the height and trunk projections are made; the estimate for Leadplant as Markdown is at https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/growth/index.html.md?species=leadplant (add height=, years= and site= poor, average or good)
- [Seed sowing planner](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/sowing/index.html.md): how Leadplant is sown, in the chart for every species (treatment, cold days, depth, timing); the dated plan for it as Markdown is at https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/sowing/index.html.md?species=leadplant (add state= and zone= for your own frost dates, method=fridge for the refrigerator route)
- [Pollination planner](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/pollination/index.html.md): what Leadplant needs for a crop and how many to plant, in the table for every species; the verdict for 2 of them as Markdown is at https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/pollination/index.html.md?plants=leadplant:2
- [Planting-window tool](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/planting-window/index.html.md): when to plant Leadplant where you live, as a fall and a spring window from the local frost dates; the windows as Markdown are at https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/planting-window/index.html.md?species=leadplant&state=MO&zone=6 with your own state and zone in place of those
- [Planting-distance tool](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/distance/index.html.md): how far Leadplant goes from a house, a septic field, a walk, wires, a property line and the next tree; the distances as Markdown are at https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/distance/index.html.md?species=leadplant&near=house,septic,pavement,wires,boundary,tree
- [Bloom and fruit calendar](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/calendar/index.html.md): the months Leadplant flowers and fruits, in the grid for every species; its own row and the gaps of a planting with it as Markdown at https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/calendar/index.html.md?plants=leadplant