| Author | (Wilbur) S.C.K. Straub, Sorrie, & Weakley | |
| Distribution | Only in the far southeastern corner of the state, from Bladen and New Hanover counties to the SC state line.
This is a Carolina endemic species, occurring only from southeastern NC into eastern SC. Its total range covers only six known counties – four in NC and two in SC.
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| Abundance | Rare to uncommon. However, in the Green Swamp area in Brunswick County, it is actually fairly common to locally common around the drier margins of the large pocosins, but away from this part of central Brunswick County, it is quite scarce and is losing habitat. It has a State Rank of S3, meaning it is not quite endangered. However, it is a State Threatened species. | |
| Habitat | It is limited to savannas and wetter parts of pine flatwoods, mainly on Foreston soil type. This is a loamy soil that tends to be more diverse in plant species than most other savanna soils. |
| Phenology | Blooms mainly in June and July; fruits from August to October. | |
| Identification | This is a rather low and colonial deciduous shrub, growing mostly to 2 feet tall on average. It has 11-25 leaflets, with each leaflet being only about 3/4-inch long; they tend to be dark green and shiny above. The flowers are deep blue and occur in a raceme; usually a few racemes are present at the tip of each branch. Two other low-growing Amorpha species can occur with or near this species. A. georgiana blooms mainly in April and May -– much earlier than A. confusa, and it has reddish-purple flowers, usually has a single raceme at a branch tip, and its leaflets are smaller. A. herbacea has more glaucous leaves and appearance, with pale and pubescent twigs; its flowers are typically pink in color. | |
| Taxonomic Comments | Until recently this species had been lumped with A. georgiana into a single species, being named as A. georgiana var. confusa. In fact, when RAB (1968) was published, these entities were not apparently known. A number of references still consider this species as just a variety, but those who are familiar with both taxa know that this lumping is in error, especially as the flowering periods are quite different (not to mention differing flower color).
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| Other Common Name(s) | Carolina Lead-plant | |
| State Rank | S3 | |
| Global Rank | G2G3 | |
| State Status | T | |
| US Status | | |
| USACE-agcp | FACU link |
| USACE-emp | | |
