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Carolina indigo

hairy indigo, roughhairy indigo

Habit Herbs, perennial, herbaceous or suffrutescent, sparsely strigose, hairs appressed. Herbs, annual or biennial, brownish hirsute or pilose, hairs long-spreading.
Stems

erect or ascending, often bushy, branched, 7–15 dm.

erect or sprawling, unbranched or branched, 3–10 dm.

Leaves

2–8.5 cm;

stipules narrowly triangular, 0.5–1 mm;

petiole 0.5–1.3 cm;

stipels 0.5–1 mm;

petiolules 1–1.3 mm;

leaflets (7 or)9–13, ± opposite, blades obovate to oblanceolate, 8–20(–25) × 2–12 mm, base cuneate, apex broadly acute or obtuse, mucronate, surfaces strigulose, pale abaxially.

4–12.5 cm;

stipules narrowly subulate, 10–13 mm;

petiole 0.8–1.2 cm;

stipels 1–3 mm;

petiolules 1.5–2 mm;

leaflets 3–7(or 9), opposite, blades elliptic to obovate, 15–60 × 7–25 mm, base cuneate, apex rounded, short-mucronate, surfaces pubescent.

Racemes

15–40-flowered, lax, 4–12 cm.

10–20+-flowered, dense, 6–20 cm.

Peduncles

1–2 cm.

4–9 cm.

Pedicels

1–2(–3) mm.

1–2 mm.

Flowers

6–9 mm;

calyx 1.5–2 mm, lobes deltate;

corolla dark pinkish buff to ochroleucous.

6–7 mm;

calyx 3.5–5 mm, lobes setaceous, bristly-plumose;

corolla salmon red to maroon.

Legumes

dark brown, deflexed, ovoid or oblong, straight, 7–9 mm, woody, glabrate or sparsely strigulose.

dark brown, deflexed, cylindric, straight, 15–22 mm, leathery, hispid.

Seeds

2 or 3, yellowish tan, bluntly ellipsoidal.

6–8, greenish, cuboid.

2n

= 16.

Indigofera caroliniana

Indigofera hirsuta

Phenology Flowering Jun–Jul. Flowering year-round.
Habitat Pinelands, pine-palmetto, scrub oak communities, sandhills, hammocks, roadsides. Roadsides, old fields, disturbed woodlands, urban waste areas.
Elevation 0–200 m. (0–700 ft.) 0–50 m. (0–200 ft.)
Distribution
from FNA
AL; FL; GA; LA; NC; SC
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
from FNA
AL; FL; GA; MS; SC; se Asia; Africa [Introduced in North America; introduced also in Mexico (Guerrero, Oaxaca, Tabasco), West Indies (Lesser Antilles, Puerto Rico), South America (Brazil, Ecuador, Guyana, Paraguay, Peru, Venezuela), Pacific Islands, Australia]
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
Discussion

Indigofera caroliniana Walter is an illegitimate later homonym that pertains here; the name by Walter is also the basis of Anila caroliniana.

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)

Source FNA vol. 11. FNA vol. 11.
Parent taxa Fabaceae > subfam. Faboideae > Indigofera Fabaceae > subfam. Faboideae > Indigofera
Sibling taxa
I. colutea, I. decora, I. hirsuta, I. kirilowii, I. lindheimeriana, I. miniata, I. oxycarpa, I. pilosa, I. sphaerocarpa, I. spicata, I. suffruticosa, I. texana, I. tinctoria
I. caroliniana, I. colutea, I. decora, I. kirilowii, I. lindheimeriana, I. miniata, I. oxycarpa, I. pilosa, I. sphaerocarpa, I. spicata, I. suffruticosa, I. texana, I. tinctoria
Synonyms Anila caroliniana, I. disperma Anila hirsuta
Name authority Miller: Gard. Dict. ed. 8, Indigofera no. 3. (1768) Linnaeus: Sp. Pl. 2: 751. (1753)
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