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Lindheimer's indigo

Carolina indigo

Habit Herbs, perennial, suffrutescent, cinereous-pubescent, hairs silvery greenish, appressed or ascending. Herbs, perennial, herbaceous or suffrutescent, sparsely strigose, hairs appressed.
Stems

erect, several from rootstock, sparsely branched distally, 5–15 dm.

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

Leaves

8.5–10.5 cm;

stipules sometimes clusters of hairs, 0.5–2 mm;

petiole 1–1.5 cm;

stipels 0.5–1 mm;

petiolules 0.5–1 mm;

leaflets 7–15, opposite, blades obovate, narrowly or broadly oblanceolate, or elliptic, 8–16 × 4–8 mm, base cuneate, apex acute to obtuse, apiculate, surfaces densely pubescent.

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.

Racemes

8–30+-flowered, lax, 5–12 cm.

15–40-flowered, lax, 4–12 cm.

Peduncles

0.8–1.2 cm.

1–2 cm.

Pedicels

1 mm.

1–2(–3) mm.

Flowers

6–8 mm;

calyx 1.5–2 mm, lobes narrowly triangular;

corolla reddish.

6–9 mm;

calyx 1.5–2 mm, lobes deltate;

corolla dark pinkish buff to ochroleucous.

Legumes

brown, divergent or reflexed, cylindric, straight or slightly curved to falcate, 18–25 mm, leathery, base bulbous and reddish, cinereous-pubescent.

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

Seeds

4–6, brown, cuboid.

2 or 3, yellowish tan, bluntly ellipsoidal.

2n

= 16.

Indigofera lindheimeriana

Indigofera caroliniana

Phenology Flowering May–Sep. Flowering Jun–Jul.
Habitat River and creek bottoms or banks, dry beds, limestone, roadsides. Pinelands, pine-palmetto, scrub oak communities, sandhills, hammocks, roadsides.
Elevation 200–1300 m. (700–4300 ft.) 0–200 m. (0–700 ft.)
Distribution
from FNA
TX; Mexico (Coahuila, Nuevo León)
[BONAP county map]
from FNA
AL; FL; GA; LA; NC; SC
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
Discussion

Indigofera lindheimeriana is found in the flora area in southwest Texas, from its eastern extent in Comal and Llano counties west to Brewster and Terrell counties.

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

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. caroliniana, I. colutea, I. decora, I. hirsuta, I. kirilowii, I. miniata, I. oxycarpa, I. pilosa, I. sphaerocarpa, I. spicata, I. suffruticosa, I. texana, I. tinctoria
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
Synonyms Anila lindheimeriana Anila caroliniana, I. disperma
Name authority Scheele: Linnaea 21: 464. (1848) Miller: Gard. Dict. ed. 8, Indigofera no. 3. (1768)
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