This shrub is amazing in full bloom, when spires of purple with orange-yellow stamens are full on, giving an overall other-worldly appearance.
 
     False Indigobush has a bad reputation as an aggressive spreader, but it's a native shrub, and that's it's job.  It thrives where it has consistent moisture and can spead out, at home in sunny, moist areas along streams and pond edges and in open meadows.  It is adaptable to dry, sandy sites but may not bush out as much.
 
     It's also one of the best shrubs for wildlife.  In fact, once when I was packing this shrub up for a plant sale, the bees followed as I was loading it into the trailer, buzzing louder and more angrily the further we went in.  (It was the first to sell at the sale). :)
 
     Butterflies including the Gray Hairstreak love to slurp the nectar, and False Indigo also is a larval host to dozens of moth species including the Silver Spotted Skipper, Carrot Seed Moth and Southern Dogface.  
 
     Amorpha fruticosa tolerates periods of drought and flooding and is a nitrogen fixer.