Wild Indigo
Baptisia tinctoria. Pulse Family.
Two or three feet high. Stems.--Smooth and slender. Leaves.--Divided into three rounded leaflets; somewhat pale with a whitish bloom; turning black in drying. Flowers.--Papilionaceous; yellow; clustered in many short, loose racemes.
This rather bushy-looking, bright-flowered plant is constantly encountered in our rambles throughout the somewhat dry and sandy parts of the country in midsummer. It is said that it is found in nearly every State in the Union, and that it has been used as a homoeopathic remedy for typhoid fever. Its young shoots are eaten at times in place of asparagus. Both the botanical and common names refer to its having yielded an economical but unsuccessful substitute for indigo.