Flora of North America species comparison

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Indigofera oxycarpa

Asian indigo, Florida keys indigo
Habit Shrubs, pubescent, hairs appressed, silvery gray.
Stems

usually procumbent, sometimes scrambling, branched, younger ones with faint zigzag pattern, from main stem at angle (30–90°), those arising from main axis usually short and stubby, 3–20 dm.
Leaves

2–10 cm;

stipules narrowly long-triangular, attenuate, 1–1.3 mm;

petiole 1–2 cm;

stipels absent;

petiolules 0.5 mm;

leaflets 3–7, opposite, blades ovate or elliptic, 4.5–19 × 2.5–16 mm, base cuneate, apex acute or broadly rounded, sometimes emarginate, mucronate, surfaces glabrate to appressed-pubescent adaxially, less so abaxially.
Racemes

20–40+-flowered, lax, 8–20 cm.
Peduncles

2–6 cm.
Pedicels

1–2 mm.
Flowers

5–6 mm;

calyx 1.5–3.1 mm, lobes narrowly triangular;

corolla pink.
Legumes

brown, strongly reflexed or spreading, cylindric, straight to slightly curved, 24–40 mm, papery, sparsely strigose.
Seeds

9 or 10, yellowish brown, cuboid.
2n

= 16.

Indigofera oxycarpa
Phenology Flowering Oct–Mar.
Habitat Rocky coasts.
Elevation 0–10 m. (0–0 ft.)
Distribution
from FNA
FL; Central America; West Indies (Cuba, Jamaica); South America (Brazil)
Discussion

Indigofera oxycarpa is endangered in Florida, known only from Collier, Miami-Dade, and Monroe counties.

The nomenclature of Indigofera oxycarpa has a confusing history (A. W. Lievens 1992). The earliest name for the species, as treated here, is Galega frutescens Miller [Tephrosia frutescens (Miller) de Candolle]. Since the name I. frutescens is preoccupied, the name I. oxycarpa is the oldest available name for the species, if it is recognized as separate from Old World taxa. Indigofera mucronata Sprengel ex de Candolle is an illegitimate name sometimes used for this taxon. Sprengel published I. jamaicensis in 1826; P. S. White (1980) adopted this name in his treatment of the genus for the Flora of Panama. Lievens provided a complete synonymy.

R. D. Meikle (1950) discussed the similarities of these New World plants with Indigofera subulata Vahl ex Poiret, an African species, and I. scabra Roth, an Indian species, creating I. subulata var. scabra (Roth) Meikle, and placing the New World names I. mucronata and I. jamaicensis under it as synonyms. Subsequently, S. I. Ali (1958) placed I. subulata and all its varieties in synonymy under I. trita Linnaeus f., creating a new combination, I. trita var. scabra (Roth) Ali for the New World taxon, later placed as I. trita subsp. scabra (Roth) de Kort & G. Thijsse.

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Source FNA vol. 11.
Parent taxa Fabaceae > subfam. Faboideae > Indigofera
Sibling taxa
I. caroliniana, I. colutea, I. decora, I. hirsuta, I. kirilowii, I. lindheimeriana, I. miniata, I. pilosa, I. sphaerocarpa, I. spicata, I. suffruticosa, I. texana, I. tinctoria
Synonyms Galega frutescens, I. jamaicensis, I. keyensis, I. laevis, I. macilenta, I. mucronata var. keyensis, I. rosei, I. trita var. keyensis, Tephrosia frutescens
Name authority Desvaux: J. Bot. Agric. 3: 79. (1814)
Web links 
Unless otherwise noted, all data comes from the online version of the Flora of North America, who have made most of their content available via a Creative Commons license (CC BY 4.0).



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