A shrub with groups of erect long racemes of purple flowers.

1/4-3/8" long only one petal, wrapping around style and 10 orange stamens.

4-12" long, long-stalked, pinnately compound, with 13-25 dull green leaflets marked with resinous dots.

Pod, with 1-2 seeds, roughened with resinous dots.

5-17'.

May-June.

Riverbanks, riverbeds, streambeds, and moist thickets.

This shrub often forms thickets on riverbanks and islands and is occasionally cultivated. A.canescens is also called False Indigo; yet another species sharing its common name is A.herbacea, which has whitish to blue violet flowers in fan-like masses on top of the plant and gray-downy leaves with up to 40 leaflets.