Yellow flowers appear late spring, grouped on moderately tall erect stalks atop mound of blue-green foliage. After flowering, spherical seed pods turn tan to dark brown for visual interest. Baptisia species including B. sphaerocarpa are host plants for larvae of the Wild Indigo Duskywing butterfly and various skippers and sulphur butterflies; can become defoliated by the genista broom moth caterpillar, for which the plant serves as a host. In the lower Midwest, the wild plant is known primarily from Arkansas.
Yellow Wild Indigo flowers and foliage. Photo: David Young.