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Plant Profile

Apalachicola Wild Indigo (Baptisia megacarpa)

Baptisia megacarpa fruits

Photo Credit: Jones Center at Ichauway

Global Rank: G2 - Imperiled
Legal Status: N/A
Family: Fabaceae
State: AL, FL, GA
Nature Serve ID: 133591
Lifeform: Forb/herb
Date Inducted in National Collection: 04/16/2024

Description:

Where is Apalachicola Wild Indigo (Baptisia megacarpa) located in the wild?

States & Provinces:

Apalachicola Wild Indigo can be found in Alabama, Florida, Georgia

Which CPC Partners conserve Apalachicola Wild Indigo (Baptisia megacarpa)?

Mt. Cuba Center

Not Sponsored

Conservation Actions

Assigned 04/16/24

The Jones Center at Ichauway

Not Sponsored

Conservation Actions

Assigned 04/22/24

CPC's Plant Sponsorship Program provides long term stewardship of rare plants in our National Collection. We are so grateful for all our donors who have made the Plant Sponsorship Program so successful. We are in the process of acknowledging all our wonderful plant sponsorship donors on our website. This is a work in progress and will be updated regularly.

Conservation Actions

Lisa Giencke

11/12/2024

Apalachicola wild indigo (Baptisia megacarpa) is a globally imperiled species that grows in Alabama, Florida, and Georgia. In June 2021, Jones Center at Ichauway staff were able to visit private property in Liberty County, FL to survey for a historical population of Apalachicola wild indigo that was last documented in 1982. During that visit, we found 58 individuals and noted that 6 with immature fruits. We visited the same site in early July 2024 to resurvey the population and collect seeds. We counted 51 individuals, only one of which had seed pods. One or two other individuals may have been reproductive earlier in the year and had already dropped their fruits. However, we have collected seeds from extreme southwest Georgia as late as mid-August in other years.

The Jones Center now holds seeds of Baptisia megacarpa from Florida and Georgia in its conservation seed bank. We have conducted germination trials on Baptisia megacarpa by scarifying seeds - either nicking them or rubbing them with sandpaper. Few seeds germinated as a result of these scarification treatments, although subsequent tetrazolium (TZ) testing showed them to be viable. The results of these trials suggest that we were either scarifying too lightly, or this species may require cold stratification in addition to scarification. One seed received a scarification treatment followed by two months of cold stratification. That seed germinated three days after it was removed from the cold stratification treatment!

Tina Stanley

04/16/2024

As of March 2024, Mt. Cuba Center holds Baptisia megacarpa in living collection.