Three Creeks Conservation Area is in Boone County (halfway between Columbia and Ashland).
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Safety Concerns
Name
Poisonous
Scientific Name
Baptisia australis
Family
Fabaceae (Beans)
Description
A native bushy perennial with 3-parted compound leaves and showy, upright stalks of blue pea-flowers. Flowers showy, in the typical pea-family configuration, blue to violet, on upright racemes that can be 12 inches long. Blooms May-June. Leaves alternate, on short petioles, trifoliate (cloverlike), bluish green, green, or gray green, hairless, with margins entire (lacking teeth). The seedpods are inflated, lack hairs, are about 2½ inches long, and have a sharply pointed tip; they turn black upon maturity, and the seeds rattle around in the dry pods.
Size
Height: to 3 feet; on glades usually much shorter.
Where To Find
Occurs naturally in the southern half of the state and in east-central Missouri, but cultivated in gardens statewide. Absent in most of the Ozarks; concentrated in the northeastern section of the Ozarks and unglaciated prairie region.
Habitat and Conservation
Occurs in limestone and dolomite glades, rocky prairies, and fields.
Human Connections
This is a popular garden plant for its flowers, interesting foliage, and ornamental seedpods. Kids (and adults) have fun rattling the dried pods (which are toxic to eat, however). The foliage of this and other Baptisia species has been used as a poor substitute for indigo in dyeing.
Ecosystem Connections
Mammals tend to avoid this plant’s rather toxic leaves, but many insects eat them: the wild indigo dusky wing (a type of skipper) and the dogbane borer moth eat this plant as caterpillars. The latter hollows out the stem and pupates in the cavity. Bumblebees and other bees pollinate this plant.
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MDC Staff
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Noppadol Paothong
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Noppadol Paothong
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Similar Species
Similar Species
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Where to See Species
This 747-acre forested conservation area lies in parts of Pemiscot and New Madrid counties. The tract was donated to the Missouri Department of Conservation in 1986 in memory of John L.
This 80-acre native prairie remnant is named after the Osage Indians' traditional name for the sun.
The Conservation Department acquired this prairie in 1987.
The Conservation Department acquired this prairie in 1987.
About Wildflowers, Grasses and Other Nonwoody Plants in Missouri
A very simple way of thinking about the green world is to divide the vascular plants into two groups: woody and nonwoody (or herbaceous). But this is an artificial division; many plant families include some species that are woody and some that are not. The diversity of nonwoody vascular plants is staggering! Think of all the ferns, grasses, sedges, lilies, peas, sunflowers, nightshades, milkweeds, mustards, mints, and mallows — weeds and wildflowers — and many more!