Plant Profile: Wild Indigo {Baptisia tinctoria}

Also, Known As:

• Baptisia
• Clover Broom
• Horsefly Weed
• Indigo Broom
• Rattlebush
• Shoofly
• Wild Indigo
• Yellow Indigo

The very term ‘indigo’ associated with a plant’s name brings to the mind that it must be yielding a rich blue pigment. But, unfortunately, wild indigo is a plant that is an inferior alternative to the original indigo dye that has provided people across the globe with a deep blue color for over 4000 years now. Indigenous to North America, the wild indigo is a shaggy plant that has bluish green leaves and yellow colored flowers that are akin to the ones found on the pea plant. According to history, the Mohegans of south New England precipitated the root of wild indigo to acquire a medicine with which they washed cuts and gaping wounds and this practice is followed even now. In fact, wild indigo has antiseptic properties and is immensely beneficial in treating…