LEADPLANT--Amorpha canescens
Description:  Leadplant is a shrubby perennial that may appear like a large forb when mowed or grazed.  Otherwise, older stems are woody and persistent.  Normal height is 1 to 3+ feet.  From June to August terminal spikes of tiny, violet flowers accented with golden-yellow anthers make leadplant a striking prairie beauty.  Leaves are alternate, pinnately compound, covered with dense short hairs, and appear gray-green.  Leadplant is deep-rooted, drawing most of its moisture from depths greater than 4 feet, therefore not competing excessively with associated grasses.
Distribution, habitat:  Leadplant is a native associated almost exclusively with big and little bluestem.  It is distributed from southeast Montana to southwest Ontario and western Illinois and south to north Texas and northeast New Mexico, then north through eastern Colorado and Wyoming.  It is present in well managed, silty and sandy, moist rangeland across South Dakota.
Comments:  Leadplant, or prairie shoestring, is an excellent forage of high nutritive quality and palatability which accounts for decreases abundance or disappearance with intensive use.  Prairie birds use leadplant for nesting and protection from the elements; sharp-tailed grouse eat its seeds in the fall.  American Indians used the dried leaves for smoking and for tea.  Superstitions have held that leadplant is an indicator of lead ore, but the common name refers to the color of its grayish foliage.  This handsome plant is sometimes cultivated as an ornamental.	Picture and information can be found on pages 256 and 257 of Grassland Plants of South Dakota and the Northern Great Plains, by James R. Johnson and Gary E. Larson.  Published in 1999 by South Dakota State University, Brookings, SD.