Amorpha Canescens Lead Plant Seed and Plants
(a-MOR-fa  ca-NES-ens)
Easyliving Native Perennial Wildflowers
Native Wild Flower Seeds & Potted Plants for Home Landscaping & Prairie Restoration

Amorpha canescens Lead Plant Photo by cj 
click on pictures for larger image

For other flowers visit the wildflower seed list or potted plant list, to order copy the order form or 
 email questions, comments, and orders to john@easywildflowers.com
Amorpha canescens Lead Plant potted plants are $6 each plus UPS shipping, I will need to know your zip code and number of plants to calculate the shipping costs.

    Amorpha canescens (Lead Plant) is a showy small native shrub with grayish white foliage and purple flower spikes making it desirable for use in wildflower beds and butterfly gardens.  The small violet-purple flowers last about 3 weeks and are in several 4 to 6 inch dense, spike-like clusters along the upper part of the stem and the leaves are covered with tiny gray hairs giving the plant it's lead gray color.  Leadplant is a small shrub, 2 to 3 feet tall and 2 to 2.5 feet wide, with a stem that becomes woody with age.  Lead Plant prefers full sun and normally grows upright but in partial shade will sprawl along the ground in the direction of greater lighter.  Grow Lead Plant in sunny well-drained soil in a rock garden, butterfly garden, or prairie meadow.   

   Amorpha canescens (Lead Plant) can be planted in the butterfly garden with other native wildflowers like - Columbine    Butterfly Milkweed   New-England Aster  White Indigo   Blue Wild Indigo  Bush's Poppy Mallow  Wine Cup   Lanceleaf Coreopsis  Purple Prairie Clover  Pale-Purple Coneflower  Yellow Coneflower  Rattlesnake Master Perennial Blanket Flower  False Sunflower  Round-headed Bushclover  Prairie Blazing Star  Spiked Gayfeather   Prairie Flax   Wild Quinine  Showy Beard Tongue  Foxglove Beard Tongue   Missouri Black-eyed  Susan   Wild Senna   Stiff Goldenrod   Big Bluestem    Switch Grass   Little Bluestem  Prairie Dropseed  

    Parts of Amorpha canescens LeadPlant have been used in folk medicine and a yellow tea can be made from the roots.  Wild Leadplant seed germination is improved by scarifying the seed or with cold stratification.  Rubbing seeds between two sheets of coarse sandpaper will scarify Amorpha canescens Lead Plant seed.  This scarification creates small scratches on the seeds surface allowing water to penetrate and improve germination.

    Plant Amorpha canescens with other native wildflowers in average, dry to medium wet, well-drained soil in full sun. Lead Plant is not particular about soil type and does well in poor, sandy, somewhat dry soils and may spread by self-seeding.  Harsh winters may cause Lead Plant to die back to the ground; it has very deep roots and normally will survive harsh winters, or fires and grow new stems the following spring.  Lead Plant is high in protein and eaten by livestock, rabbits and deer

   Lead plant is a small native shrub that typically occurs in open woodlands, glades and prairies.  This deciduous shrub is good for naturalizing in a native meadow, wildflower garden or prairie.  Amorpha canescens (Leadplant) grows 1 to 3 feet tall with slender, spike-like 4 to 8" clusters of dense, tiny, bluish-purple flowers with gold anthers in May and June.  Leaves are alternate, pinnately compound  with grayish green leaflets and densely hairy twigs. The genus Amorpha is often called false indigo because of its resemblance to plants of the genus Indigofera.  The common (lead plant) refers to the once held belief that the plant was an indicator of the presence of lead in the ground.

    Amorpha canescens Lead plant is a showy native plant that is found growing wild in high-quality prairies, savannas, glades, and rocky open woods from Michigan to Saskatchewan, south to Indiana, Illinois, Arkansas, Texas, and New Mexico. (-38°F)  

    The map below shows areas where native Amorpha canescens Lead plants grow wild but it can be planted and will grow over most of the Eastern US.  
USDA plant hardiness zones 2 to 9. Family: Fabaceae

Use the chart below for shipping charges on Amorpha canescens Lead plant flower seeds, to order copy the order form or email questions, comments & orders to john@easywildflowers.com 
Please contact us by email for shipping costs on potted plants.

The minimum seed order amount is $10, this can be a combination of different seeds.

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Easyliving Wildflowers
PO Box  522
Willow Springs,  Mo.  65793
phone-fax 417-469-2611 

Amorpha canescens Lead Plant distribution map complements of USDA, NRCS. 2001. The PLANTS Database, Version 3.1
  (http://plants.usda.gov). National Plant Data Center, Baton Rouge, LA 70874-4490 USA.