desert false indigo Fabaceae Amorpha fruticosa

Leaf:Alternate, pinnately compound, to 10 inches long, up to 35 leaflets per leaf, each leaflet elliptical with an entire margin and on a petiole, 1/2 to 1 1/2 inches long, dull green above and light green below, usually glabrous, a slender stipule is present with young leaves.
Flower:Borne on tall (to 6 inch), slender spikes at the ends of the twigs, deep purple-blue with long bright orange or yellow anthers, appearing mid-summer, opening from base to tip.
Fruit:Best described as tiny cucumbers, bright green and drying to brown, from 1/4 to 1/2 inch long.
Twig:Moderate, gray-brown and somewhat grooved below the nodes, may be covered in fine white pubescence, buds are small, gray-brown and appressed.
Bark:Smooth and gray.
Form:A multi-stem suckering shrub to 10 feet tall and nearly as wide, often described as "leggy".

leaf flower twig bark form map

Notes: