The green links below add additional plants to the comparison table. Blue links lead to other Web sites.
enable glossary links

Lindheimer's indigo

creeping indigo, trailing indigo

Habit Herbs, perennial, suffrutescent, cinereous-pubescent, hairs silvery greenish, appressed or ascending. Herbs, perennial, densely strigulose to glabrate, hairs appressed.
Stems

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

prostrate, often mat-forming, branching freely, 1–3 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.

1–7.5 cm;

stipules deltate to lanceolate, 5–7(–9) mm;

petiole 0.1–0.2 cm;

stipels absent or of a few hairs;

petiolules 1 mm;

leaflets 3–9, alternate, blades obovate to broadly oblanceolate, 5–30 × 2–18 mm, terminal leaflet usually larger than laterals, base cuneate, apex rounded to truncate, surfaces strigulose abaxially, glabrous adaxially.

Racemes

8–30+-flowered, lax, 5–12 cm.

20–40+-flowered, dense, 4–9 cm.

Peduncles

0.8–1.2 cm.

0.5–1 cm.

Pedicels

1 mm.

0.5–1 mm.

Flowers

6–8 mm;

calyx 1.5–2 mm, lobes narrowly triangular;

corolla reddish.

6–8 mm;

calyx 2.5–4 mm, lobes subulate;

corolla pinkish salmon to pale carmine.

Legumes

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

brown, deflexed, cylindric, straight, 10–20 mm, leathery, strigulose.

Seeds

4–6, brown, cuboid.

4–9, greenish, cuboid.

2n

= 16.

= 16.

Indigofera lindheimeriana

Indigofera spicata

Phenology Flowering May–Sep. Flowering year-round.
Habitat River and creek bottoms or banks, dry beds, limestone, roadsides. Disturbed, ruderal areas, roadsides, lawns, hammocks, beaches.
Elevation 200–1300 m. (700–4300 ft.) 0–10 m. (0–0 ft.)
Distribution
from FNA
TX; Mexico (Coahuila, Nuevo León)
[BONAP county map]
from FNA
AL; FL; GA; SC; Africa [Introduced also in Mexico, West Indies (Bahamas, Jamaica, Lesser Antilles, Puerto Rico, Virgin Islands), Central America, South America (Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, French Guiana), Pacific Islands (Hawaii), Australia]
[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 spicata has been confused with I. hendecaphylla Jacquin (sometimes spelled incorrectly as endecaphylla); distinctions between them were clarified by D. J. Du Puy et al. (1993) and A. S. Weakley et al (2018). The former is toxic to some grazing animals and has been linked to a fatal central nervous system syndrome in horses (J. F. Morton 1989).

(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. caroliniana, I. colutea, I. decora, I. hirsuta, I. kirilowii, I. lindheimeriana, I. miniata, I. oxycarpa, I. pilosa, I. sphaerocarpa, I. suffruticosa, I. texana, I. tinctoria
Synonyms Anila lindheimeriana
Name authority Scheele: Linnaea 21: 464. (1848) Forsskål: Fl. Aegypt.-Arab., 138. (1775)
Web links