False indigo bush also called Amorpha fruticosa, is an endemic legume with a medium-sized shrub that measures 10 feet high. The general shape is an open canopy having the bulk of foliage and twigs in the upper 1/3 of the crown. Leaves are pinnately compounds and alternate. The leaflet is about 2 inches long and over 1 inch wide having a small and bristly-like point at the rounded tip. Flowers form in dense spikes on the upper part of the plant. Flowers have dark indigo to purple petals having yellow-tipped stamens. The plant blooms from late spring to mid-summer. Twigs are glabrous, rigid, and brown or gray. Fruits are small, a pod of warty kidney-shaped measuring 1/2 inch long having large glandular dots in a crowded cylindrical cluster.
Native to the eastern United States, it is found in all adjacent states and considered intrusive in the Western states. This perennial species of legume reproduces by seeds. The shrub has firm woody branches which terminate in the current season’s growth of hairy and green twigs. Medicinally, it is used for treating various health ailments such as nervous disorders, epilepsy, bronchitis, asthma, stomach pain, fever, kidney and spleen diseases, liver diseases, wounds, sores, skin conditions, gonorrhea, hemorrhoids, snake bites, and syphilis. The plant is used as green manure and cover crop. The plant seeks full sun to partial shade has medium to dry soil and does not blooms in acidic soil.
Roots
It has extensive root system and grows from proliferating lateral root sprouts. Roots have a symbiotic relationship with soil bacteria that forms nodules on roots and has the ability to fix atmospheric nitrogen.
Stems
Shrubs have erect, multiple which grows 3.3 to 13 feet high and are commonly branched near the tips. It has an open crown of many stems which are unarmed.
Leaves
Leaves are compound, deciduous, and arranged alternately on stems. Leaves occur primarily on the upper third of the stems. The petioles are 2 to 5 cm long. Leaves are finely hairy or almost hairless, gland-dotted. Leaves are 7 to 20 cm long and leaflets are apiculate, oblong to elliptic, and green to gray-green. The midrib of the leaflet ends in a thin hair-like projection that is 0.5 to 1.5 mm long.
Flowers
Flowers form in dense racemes, solitary or in clusters. The calyx is gland-dotted and about 2.5 to 4 mm long. Flowers have one petal, lacks wings and a keel. Petal curves around a single pistil and 10 stamens, violet-blue to purple and about 0.2 to 0.24 inches (5 to 6 mm) long. An inflorescence is a raceme of spike-shaped many flowers with a single purple petal and ten protruding stamens with yellow anthers. A fruit is a legume pod that contains one or two seeds.
Fruit
Fruit is a pod that is gland-dotted, glabrous, and short pubescent. Pods are incurved distally measuring 0.2 to 0.4 inches long by 0.06 to 0.16 inches wide and contain one to two seeds.
Medicinal uses
- It is used to treat nervous disorders, epilepsy, bronchitis, asthma, liver diseases, stomach pain, fever, kidney or spleen diseases, wounds, sores, skin conditions, syphilis, gonorrhea, hemorrhoids, and snake bites.
- An infusion made from leaves is helpful for nervous disorders, epilepsy, bronchitis, asthma, fever, stomach complaints, kidney, and spleen.
- Apply the leaves externally (as an ointment) for treating skin diseases, sores, wounds, hemorrhoids, and ulcers.
- In India, seed tincture is used to kill lice.
- Apply the root preparation to provide relief from syphilis, toothache, kidney stones, and gonorrhea.
- Use the root infusion as an antidote for snakebites and for treating insect and scorpion stings.
- Ingest in form of cold tea to halt vomiting.
- Chew the root to soothe toothaches.
- Use the stem as a wash for treating smallpox and other skin problems.
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