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mu lan, true indigo

Habit Herbs or subshrubs, perennial, pubescent, hairs appressed, silvery, young growth and flowering parts covered with brownish hairs, becoming glabrate.
Stems

erect or ascending, much branched, 5–20 dm.

Leaves

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

5–25-flowered, dense, 0.5–4.5 cm.

Peduncles

0.1–0.5 cm.

Pedicels

1–2 mm.

Flowers

5–6 mm;

calyx 1.5 mm, lobes triangular;

corolla pink or salmon pink.

Legumes

red-brown or dark brown, spreading or reflexed, cylindric, straight or slightly curved or abruptly upturned distally, 20–35 mm, thinly leathery, strigose.

Seeds

6–12, greenish to dark brown, cuboid-ellipsoidal.

2n

= 16.

Indigofera tinctoria

Phenology Flowering year-round.
Habitat Ruderal areas, disturbed pinelands, hammocks.
Elevation 0–200 m. (0–700 ft.)
Distribution
from FNA
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]
[BONAP county map]
Discussion

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.
Parent taxa Fabaceae > subfam. Faboideae > Indigofera
Sibling taxa
I. caroliniana, I. colutea, I. decora, I. hirsuta, I. kirilowii, I. lindheimeriana, I. miniata, I. oxycarpa, I. pilosa, I. sphaerocarpa, I. spicata, I. suffruticosa, I. texana
Synonyms Anila tinctoria
Name authority Linnaeus: Sp. Pl. 2: 751. (1753)
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