Baptisia 'Carolina Moonlight' (False Indigo)

False Indigo Baptisia 'Carolina Moonlight' is an interspecific hybrid with elegant spikes of soft primrose-yellow pea flowers over blue-green foliage, a refined long-lived prairie perennial. Baptisia australis is native to prairie openings, glades, and streambanks of central and eastern North America, from Maine south to Georgia and west to Nebraska and Texas. It is not native to Oregon or the Pacific Northwest, but it is one of the toughest, longest-lived prairie perennials you can grow. Once established, a clump can thrive in the same spot for 30+ years.

In late spring to early summer, upright spires of pea flowers open over a mound of blue-green trifoliate foliage. Bumblebees are the signature pollinators: only they are heavy enough to trip the keel of the pea flower and reach the nectar. The plant is also a documented larval host for a remarkable list of butterflies and skippers including Wild Indigo Duskywing, Frosted Elfin, Orange Sulphur, Clouded Sulphur, Silver-spotted Skipper, and Hoary Edge. Blackened inflated seed pods follow the flowers and rattle into fall for structural interest.

Full sun and well-drained soil. A deep taproot makes Baptisia exceptionally drought-tolerant once established, but also makes it resent transplanting. Site it thoughtfully the first time. As a legume, it fixes its own nitrogen and never needs fertilizer. Hardy Zone 3-9 (species) / 4-9 (hybrids). Deer-resistant thanks to alkaloid-bitter foliage.

Pairs with Panicum virgatum, Schizachyrium scoparium, Echinacea purpurea, and Amsonia hubrichtii for a drought-tough prairie-style border.