2024 Author: Gavin MacAdam | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:38
Baptisia (lat. Baptisia) - a genus of herbaceous flowering perennial plants of the legume family (lat. Fabaceae). Plants of the genus are native to the eastern and southern lands of North America, where they grow in forests and pastures. Plants are shrubs, the height of which depends on the species and living conditions. Flexible stems are covered with complex leaves, consisting of relatively small leaflets. The racemose inflorescences are formed by moth-type flowers, typical for plants of the legume family, and have a wide variety of colors: white, cream, yellow, blue, blue, violet of different shades. Many species are saturated with toxic substances, posing a certain threat to animals and people, especially for curious children without adult supervision.
What's in your name
The Latin name of the genus "Baptisia" is based on an ancient Greek word, the meaning of which is translated into Russian as "impregnate with paint" or "paint". The reason for this name was the presence in plant tissues of some types of Baptisia of chemicals that can dye tissues.
For some similarity of plants of the genus Baptisia with plants of the genus Indigofera (lat. Indigofera), known as a source of blue, persistent paint, the genus Baptisia in English literature is called "Wild indigo" ("Wild indigo") or "False indigo" ("False indigo ").
Description
The perennial of plants of the genus Baptisia is supported by an underground rhizome, lying at a depth, from which a network of roots is buried into the soil, and branched erect stems are born on the surface of the earth, the height of which depends on the species and living conditions, varying from half a meter to one and a half to two meters.
Composite leaves consist of three simple leaves, resembling in their number Clover, and in their external form - the leaves of many plants of the legume family: Acacia, Indigofer and others.
The most picturesque part of the plant are large showy flowers forming racemose inflorescences. The bell-shaped double-lipped calyx protects the corolla from the vicissitudes of the moth, the sail of which does not seek to amaze the observer in size, and therefore does not exceed the length of the wings, as in some representatives of the legume family. Ten free stamens with the same free ovary (the so-called upper ovary, which is in contact only with the receptacle with its base) complement the beauty and picturesqueness of the flower. Nature gave the genus a wide range of colors, and therefore flower petals of different types choose for themselves a personal color from such a set of paints as white, cream, yellow, blue, blue, purple.
The culmination of the growing cycle is the beans, which are swollen from the large number of seeds hiding behind the valves of the fruit.
Varieties
In the ranks of the genus today there are about thirty species of plants. For example, let's list some of them:
* Southern Baptisia (Latin Baptisia australis) is the most widespread species of the genus "Baptisia" in nature. The plant is commonly known as Blue wild indigo or Blue false indigo. It is a shrub from one to one and a half meters in height with gray-green leaves and moth flowers with a color from light blue to deep purple.
* Baptisia tinctoria (Latin Baptisia tinctoria) - has other names, for example, "Yellow false indigo" (Yellow false indigo). It is a shrub from half a meter to one meter in height, the stems of which are covered with complex leaves, consisting of three silvery-green leaves slightly more than one centimeter long, and yellow flowers of a moth-like appearance.
* Baptisia white (lat. Baptisia alba) - has common English names "White wild indigo" (White wild indigo) or "White false indigo" (White false indigo). With moth white flowers.
Usage
Similar to the Australian genus of plants with the name "Indigofera", plants of the described genus were also used by the Indians, only in this case, by the American ones, for dyeing fabrics.
The relative winter hardiness of the plant makes it possible to grow a spectacular shrub in Russian conditions, in places where winter is not distinguished by severe and prolonged frosts.
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South Baptisia
Baptisia southern (lat.Baptisia australis) - the most common representative of the genus Baptisia (lat. Baptisia), belonging to the glorious legume family (lat. Fabaceae). The plant can often be found in the pastures and forests in the south and east of North America, where it is represented by herbaceous shrubs with delicate leaves and rather large racemose inflorescences formed by typical moth flowers with petals painted in various shades of purple.
