Indigofera

Indigofera
Indigofera tinctoria
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Eudicots
Clade: Rosids
Order: Fabales
Family: Fabaceae
Subfamily: Faboideae
Tribe: Indigofereae
Genus: Indigofera
L.
Type species
Indigofera tinctoria
L.
Species

See text.

Synonyms
  • Acanthonotus Benth. (1849)
  • Amecarpus Benth. (1847)
  • Bremontiera DC. (1825)
  • Brissonia Neck. (1790), opus utique oppr.
  • Eleimanthus Hochst. (1846)
  • Elasmocarpus Hochst. ex Chiov. (1903 publ. 1902)
  • Hemispadon Endl. (1832)
  • Indigo Adans. (1763)
  • Oustropis G.Don (1832)
  • Sphaeridiophorum Desv. (1813)
  • Tricoilendus Raf. (1837)
  • Vaughania S.Moore (1920)

Indigofera is a large genus of over 750 species of flowering plants belonging to the pea family Fabaceae and is widely distributed throughout the tropical and subtropical regions of the world. Plants in the genus Indigofera are perennial herbs, shrubs or subshrubs with simple, or divided leaves, flowers arranged in racemes in leaf axils, and fruit containing spherical, cylindrical or cube-shaped seeds.

Description

Plants in the genus Indigofera are perennial herbs, subshrubs or shrubs, rarely annual herbs or small trees, that usually have soft hairs on the stems. The leaves are arranged alternately, unifoliate, trifoiate, or imparipinnate with five to many leaflets, often with stipules that are sometimes spiny.

The flowers are borne in racemes in leaf axils with more or less equal sepals, sometimes the lowermost sepals longer, the sinus between the upper lobes v- to u-shaped. The petals are red or pink to purple, sometimes white or yellow, the standard petal hairy on the lower surface and the keel sickle-shaped and hairy at the tip. There are ten stamens, three joined together and one free, the filaments alternating long and short, the anthers glabrous, with tufts of hairs. The ovary is sessile, usually hairy, with one, two or many ovules.

The fruit is linear, oblong, egg-shaped, cylindrical or four-sided in cross section and usually dehiscent, but show a trend towards indehiscence.

Species

As of April 2025, Plants of the World Online accepted over 760 species worldwide.

Selected species:

Ecology

Indigofera species are used as food plants by the larvae of some Lepidoptera species, including the turnip moth (Agrotis segetum).

Uses

Indigo dye

Several species, especially Indigofera tinctoria and Indigofera suffruticosa, are used to produce the dye indigo. Scraps of Indigo-dyed fabric likely dyed with plants from the genus Indigofera discovered at Huaca Prieta predate Egyptian indigo-dyed fabrics by more than 1,500 years. Colonial planters in the Caribbean grew indigo and transplanted its cultivation when they settled in the colony of South Carolina and North Carolina where people of the Tuscarora confederacy adopted the dyeing process for head wraps and clothing. Exports of the crop did not expand until the mid-to late 18th century. When Eliza Lucas Pinckney and enslaved Africans successfully cultivated new strains near Charleston it became the second most important cash crop in the colony (after rice) before the American Revolution. It comprised more than one-third of all exports in value.

The chemical aniline, from which many important dyes are derived, was first synthesized from Indigofera suffruticosa (syn. Indigofera anil, whence the name aniline).

In Indonesia, the Sundanese use Indigofera tinctoria (known locally as tarum or nila) as dye for batik. Marco Polo was the first to report on the preparation of indigo in India. Indigo was quite often used in European easel painting[clarification needed] during the Middle Ages.

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 "Indigofera". Plants of the World Online. Retrieved 18 October 2026.
  2. ↑ Gao X, Schrire BD. "Indigofera L." Flora of China. eFloras (Missouri Botanical Garden, St. Louis, MO & Harvard University Herbaria, Cambridge, MA). Retrieved 12 February 2017.
  3. 1 2 3 Wilson, Peter G. "Genus Indigofera". Royal Botanic Garden, Sydney. Retrieved 20 October 2026.
  4. 1 2 3 Gao, Win-fen; Schire, Brian D. "Indigofera". Flora of China. Retrieved 20 October 2026.
  5. 1 2 3 "Indigofera". FloraSA. Retrieved 20 October 2026.
  6. ↑ Leite, Viviane G.; Marquiafável, Flávia S.; Moraes, Daniela de P.; Teixeira, Simone de P. (2009). "Fruit anatomy of Neotropical species of Indigofera (Leguminosae, Papilionoideae) with functional and taxonomic implications". The Journal of the Torrey Botanical Society. 136 (2): 203–211. doi:10.3159/08-RA-106.1. Retrieved 20 October 2026.
  7. ↑ Chuahan, Vibha; Panday, Arun K. (2014). "Structure and evolution of the pod in Indigofera (Fabaceae) reveals a trend towards small thin indehiscent pods". Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society. 176 (2): 260–276. doi:10.1111/boj.12203. Retrieved 20 October 2026.
  8. ↑ "Indigofera L." Plants of the World Online. Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. Retrieved 2025-04-10.
  9. ↑ Splitstoser JC, Wouters J, Claro A. (2016). "Early pre-Hispanic use of indigo blue in Peru". Science Advances. Vol. 2, no. 9. American Association for the Advancement of Science. doi:10.1126/sciadv.1501623.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  10. ↑ Douma M. "Pigments through the Ages—History—Indigo". Pigments through the Ages.
  11. ↑ Buchanan R. (1999). A Weaver's Garden: Growing Plants for Natural Dyes and Fibers. Courier Corporation. p. 106. ISBN 978-0-486-40712-8. Retrieved 12 May 2016.

Further reading