Indigofera sphaerocarpa |
Indigofera tinctoria |
|
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Sonoran indigo, Sonoran indigobush |
mu lan, true indigo |
|
Habit | Shrubs or subshrubs (woody), strigose, hairs appressed. | Herbs or subshrubs, perennial, pubescent, hairs appressed, silvery, young growth and flowering parts covered with brownish hairs, becoming glabrate. |
Stems | erect, diffusely branched, 3–15 dm. |
erect or ascending, much branched, 5–20 dm. |
Leaves | 2.5–9 cm; stipules linear-triangular, 1–2 mm; petiole 0.3–1.5 cm; stipels 0.5 mm; petiolules 1.3 mm; leaflets 13–19, opposite, blades elliptic to obovate-oblong, sometimes folded, 20–30 × 2–5 mm, base cuneate, apex broadly rounded or truncate, mucronate, surfaces strigose and pale abaxially, glabrate adaxially. |
3–10 cm; stipules caducous, subulate, 1–2 mm; petiole 0.4–1.2 cm; stipels 1–1.5 mm; petiolules 1–1.5 mm; leaflets 7–15, opposite, blades broadly oblanceolate to obovate or elliptic, 10–25 × 3–10 mm, base cuneate, apex broadly rounded or truncate, slightly apiculate, surfaces pubescent abaxially, glabrous adaxially. |
Racemes | 20–35+-flowered, lax, 2.5–11 cm. |
5–25-flowered, dense, 0.5–4.5 cm. |
Peduncles | 0.8–1.2 cm. |
0.1–0.5 cm. |
Pedicels | 1–2 mm. |
1–2 mm. |
Flowers | 4.5–5.2 mm; calyx 1.5–2 mm, lobes broadly triangular; corolla orange-mauve or pinkish. |
5–6 mm; calyx 1.5 mm, lobes triangular; corolla pink or salmon pink. |
Legumes | brown, divergent or deflexed, ellipsoidal, straight, 3–3.5 mm, leathery, glabrate. |
red-brown or dark brown, spreading or reflexed, cylindric, straight or slightly curved or abruptly upturned distally, 20–35 mm, thinly leathery, strigose. |
Seed(s) | 1, brown, bluntly ellipsoidal. |
6–12, greenish to dark brown, cuboid-ellipsoidal. |
2n | = 16. |
|
Indigofera sphaerocarpa |
Indigofera tinctoria |
|
Phenology | Flowering Jul–Oct. | Flowering year-round. |
Habitat | Dry, rocky slopes, with grasses, oaks. | Ruderal areas, disturbed pinelands, hammocks. |
Elevation | 1000–1800 m. (3300–5900 ft.) | 0–200 m. (0–700 ft.) |
Distribution |
AZ; CA; NM; Mexico (Chihuahua, Jalisco, Sonora)
|
AL; FL; NC; SC; TN; s Asia (India) [Introduced in North America; introduced also in Mexico (Tabasco), West Indies (Bahamas, Cayman Islands, Cuba, Hispaniola, Jamaica, Lesser Antilles, Puerto Rico, Virgin Islands), Central America, South America (Argentina, Venezuela), elsewhere in Asia, Africa, Australia] |
Discussion | Indigofera sphaerocarpa is known in the flora area from Cochise, Graham, Pima, and Santa Cruz counties, Arizona, and Hidalgo County, New Mexico. A single specimen from the Joshua Tree National Monument, Riverside County, California, was collected in 1973 (Smith & Sawyer 6890, HSC). (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Indigofera tinctoria was an early source of a blue fabric dye (J. A. Duke 1981). It was widely cultivated in tropical areas around the world, and it has naturalized in many regions. Use of the plant as a dye source waned after introduction of a synthetic dye. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Source | FNA vol. 11. | FNA vol. 11. |
Parent taxa | ||
Sibling taxa | ||
Synonyms | Amorpha ovalis, Anila sphaerocarpa | Anila tinctoria |
Name authority | A. Gray: Smithsonian Contr. Knowl. 5(6): 37. (1853) | Linnaeus: Sp. Pl. 2: 751. (1753) |
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