Species
+

Amorpha fruticosa L.

Desert false indigo, False indigo-bush, Bastard indigobush, False indigo, Pyšny indigo, Shrubby amorpha, Indigobush amorpha, Falseindigo

Climate known 86 photographs
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Every figure on this page is derived from public data by a stated rule and says its source; nothing here is written by a person or a model, except the Wikipedia passage, which is quoted and marked as such. How it is made.

Summary

Amorpha fruticosa is a species of flowering plant in the legume family Fabaceae, known by several common names, including desert false indigo, false indigo-bush, and bastard indigobush. It is native to North America.

Text from Wikipedia, “Amorpha fruticosa”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written. Kept separate from everything derived here.

About the genus · Amorpha

Amorpha is a genus of plants in the pea family, Fabaceae. All the species are native to North America, from southern Canada, most of the United States (US), and northern Mexico. They are commonly known as false indigo. More on Wikipedia ›

The opening of Wikipedia, “Amorpha”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written.

Family
Fabaceae
Described by
L.
Native to
Colorado, Idaho, Oregon +20
Wild records
487 in range· 146 open

At a glance

Warmest month
31°C
Jul, mean day; nights 21 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
981mm/yr
12 wet months · peak Jun 108 mm (CHELSA)
Light
16–42DLI
mol/m²/day, winter to summer, open sky (CHELSA shortwave)
In short condensed by rule from the cultivation cards · not written by a person
Rain rule: no season, 70% of the rain takes 8 months (March to October in the northern hemisphere). Habitat rain 981 mm a year, wettest June at 108 mm, driest January at 60 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 16 to 42 mol/m²/day. Cold floor -10.4 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).
Each sentence is one card's own one-line form, written by the same rule as the card (Its year, Rain, Light, Temperature); the note cannot say what a card does not. Months are given for the northern hemisphere (set your site in Settings to change this), and the habitat's own alongside. The cards · the figures.

Also known as Amorpha angustifolia (Pursh) Boynton; Amorpha arizonica Rydb.; Amorpha bushii Rydb.; Amorpha caroliniana Croom; Amorpha coerulea Lodd. and 45 more.

Cultivation

Its year Rain rule: no season, 70% of the rain takes 8 months (March to October in the northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, and what two fixed rules read from them.

The rain rule reads no season: 70% of the year's rain (720 mm of 981 mm) takes 8 months, March to October. Mean temperature moves 22.0 °C between the warmest and coldest month. Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: September to April.

Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the envelope cells: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve gives a season to reverse. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain Habitat rain 981 mm a year, wettest June at 108 mm, driest January at 60 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

981 mm a year at the habitat, 720 mm of it March to October. Wettest month June at 108 mm, driest January at 60 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 396 mm to 1348 mm (10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year) (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the envelope cells. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light Open sky over the habitat: 16 to 42 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 16 to 42 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 9, the highest 90th-percentile month 52).

CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.

Warmth and air Cold floor -10.4 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell is -10.4 °C, the absolute minimum -21.1 °C, about 81 frost nights a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 35.1 °C. Monthly means: coldest night -0.6 °C in January (across the envelope cells -10.9 °C to 7.1 °C), warmest day 30.6 °C in July (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: -10.4 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell (NASA POWER).

NASA POWER daily minima and maxima 1981–2024 at the typical cell, lapse-corrected to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA. The cold floor is the figure named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 55 to 58% across the year (monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the envelope cells.

The figures the cards read from are in Climate below, and where they came from in Natural habitat.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat climate through the yearMean day from 9 °C in Jan to 31 °C in Jul; mean night from -1 °C in Jan to 21 °C in Jul. The cold quarter, Dec to Feb, is the three months around the coldest night. 981 mm of rain a year, most in Jun. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 388 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was -21.1 °C and the 99th-percentile day 35.1 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.-30°-20°-10°10°20°30°40°frost35.1° 99th-percentile day (undated)-21.1° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter0255075100125150mm rainDLI 16–42RH 55–58 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 388 habitat cells cold quarter: the three months around the coldest night extremes over 44 years at the typical cell, marked at the edge: undated DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C9 / -2–1712 / 1–1916 / 7–2220 / 14–2624 / 20–2929 / 25–3231 / 27–3430 / 26–3527 / 22–3121 / 15–2615 / 7–219 / 1–18
Night °C-1 / -11–71 / -9–94 / -3–119 / 3–1513 / 9–1918 / 13–2321 / 16–2520 / 16–2517 / 12–2211 / 6–176 / -1–121 / -8–8
Rain mm60 / 23–11065 / 22–11281 / 34–11681 / 21–10899 / 10–134108 / 9–13897 / 10–14184 / 14–12782 / 15–11988 / 25–11871 / 26–10665 / 29–114
DLI18 / 12–2223 / 18–2729 / 26–3735 / 32–4638 / 37–5141 / 39–5242 / 38–5038 / 34–4432 / 27–3925 / 19–3119 / 11–2416 / 9–20
RH %58 / 51–6357 / 51–6156 / 49–5955 / 45–5857 / 43–6058 / 41–6257 / 47–6258 / 49–6357 / 48–6257 / 48–6058 / 48–6058 / 51–63

Each figure is the median across the 388 grid cells holding the 455 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. Extremes and elevation were read at the typical cell 1022:2070 (38.875, -76.475). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -21.1 °C, 1st-percentile night -10.4 °C, 99th-percentile day 35.1 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Envelope: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 388 distinct grid cells holding the 455 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1022:2070 (its coldest month's mean night nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 39.00_-76.250, lapse-corrected -20 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 1 m (cell mean).

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP; the marker is where the records are densest and decides nothing: the climate was read across every in-range record's cell, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeColorado, Idaho, Oregon, Washington, Wyoming, Illinois, Minnesota, North Dakota, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Vermont, Arizona, California, Utah, New Mexico, Texas, Alabama, Florida, Kentucky, Maryland, Tennessee, Mexico Northeast, Mexico Northwest· introduced: Great Britain, Austria, Belgium, Czechoslovakia, Germany, Hungary, Poland, Switzerland, France, Albania, Bulgaria, Greece, Italy, Romania, Yugoslavia, Belarus, Baltic States, Krym, Central European Russia, East European Russia, South European Russia, Ukraine, Khabarovsk, Primorye, Kazakhstan, Kirgizistan, Turkmenistan, Tadzhikistan, Uzbekistan, North Caucasus, Transcaucasus, East Aegean Is., Iraq, China South-Central, Inner Mongolia, Manchuria, China North-Central, Qinghai, China Southeast, Xinjiang, Japan, Korea, India, Pakistan, West Himalaya, Myanmar, New York, Argentina Northeast, Argentina Northwest, Uruguay
Kew's description“shrub” · “temperate”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker32.578, -97.447 · in the densest population, 150 records (31% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 487 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 146 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 31 km away. 1349 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 32 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km and stay on the map but off the climate.
The map markerthe map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population inside the densest 4° block of the 487 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Amorpha fruticosaAmorpha fruticosaAmorpha fruticosaAmorpha fruticosaAmorpha fruticosaAmorpha fruticosaAmorpha fruticosaAmorpha fruticosa

Photographs: (c) Sandy Wolkenberg, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2); (c) Gavin Slater, some rights reserved (CC BY) (4); (c) Rachel Stringham, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2).

Photographs: iNaturalist did not answer when this page was built; what is shown came from the sources that did.

Papers naming this species

Works whose title or abstract names Amorpha fruticosa, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

Anti-inflammatory Plant Flavonoids and Cellular Action Mechanisms
Hyun Pyo Kim, Kun Ho Son, Hyeun Wook Chang, Sam Sik Kang (2004) · Journal of Pharmacological Sciences
Bioactive flavonoids in medicinal plants: Structure, activity and biological fate
Tian-yang Wang, Qing Li, Kai-Shun Bi (2017) · Asian Journal of Pharmaceutical Sciences
Phytocannabinoids: a unified critical inventory
Lumír Ondřej Hanuš, Stefan Meyer, Eduardo Muñóz, Orazio Taglialatela‐Scafati (2016) · Natural Product Reports
Unifying niche shift studies: insights from biological invasions
Antoine Guisan, Blaise Petitpierre, Olivier Broennimann, Curtis C. Daehler (2014) · Trends in Ecology & Evolution
Flavonoids as anti-inflammatory agents
Mauro Serafini, Ilaria Peluso, Anna Raguzzini (2010) · Proceedings of The Nutrition Society
Natural product agonists of peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma (PPARγ): a review
Limei Wang, Birgit Waltenberger, Eva‐Maria Pferschy‐Wenzig, Martina Blunder (2014) · Biochemical Pharmacology
Silybin and silymarin - new effects and applications
Vladimír Křen, Daniela Walterová (2005) · Biomedical Papers
Bioactive Secondary Metabolites from Plant Sources: Types, Synthesis, and Their Therapeutic Uses
Baan Munim Twaij, Md. Nazmul Hasan (2022) · International Journal of Plant Biology
Europe’s forest management did not mitigate climate warming
Kim Naudts, Yi‐Ying Chen, Matthew J. McGrath, Jim Ryder (2016) · Science
Anti-Inflammatory Compounds of Plant Origin. Part II. Modulation of Pro-Inflammatory Cytokines, Chemokines and Adhesion Molecules
João Β. Calixto, Maria M. Campos, Michel Fleith Otuki, Adair R.S. Santos (2004) · Planta Medica
Phylogenies of atpD and recA support the small subunit rRNA-based classification of rhizobia.
Michael W. Gaunt, Sarah L. Turner, Lionel Rigottier‐Gois, Susan A. Lloyd-MacGilp (2001) · INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF SYSTEMATIC AND EVOLUTIONARY MICROBIOLOGY

Similar habitat climate the 6 species whose habitat climate is nearest this one's: mean day and night, month by month, and rain on a log scale, in calendar order, so a habitat with the same seasons six months out is far, not near. Nothing else counts: not range, not family.

Other Amorpha 1 in the reference

History & registers

Where this page came from built 2026-09-20 · dossier v2 · node
gbif.species answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.synonyms answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.vernacular answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
wcvp.distribution answered
gbif.occurrences answeredGBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.3h4zam
climate answered
wikidata answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
wikipedia answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped
inat.taxon not askedcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive)
inat.photos.wild answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped
inat.photos.cultivated nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
commons nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
gbif.media answered
openalex answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped

Every upstream is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, or refused. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 213 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.