Silky Indigo

Erect or spreading annual, up to 1.5 m tall; stem pilose, hairs stiff, mostly brown. Leaf imparipinnately compound, petiole up to 2 cm long, pilose; rachis up to 7 cm long, pilose; leaflets 5-11, up to 40 mm long and 25 mm wide, pilose on both sides; petiolules c. 2 mm long; stipules up to 1 cm long. Inflorescence a raceme, peduncle 25 mm long, hirsute. Bract up to 5 mm long, caducous. Pedicel c. 1 mm long. Calyx c. 4 mm long, brown hirsute, teeth linear setaceous, cup very small. Vexillum c. 4-4.5 mm long. Fruit tetragonal, c. 10-20 mm long, c. 3 mm wide, hirsute, up to 6-seeded.

Distribution: Pakistan (Punjab); India; Ceylon; Burma; Indochina; China, (Hainan); Australia; New Guinea; Tropical Africa; Madagascar; S. Africa; intro¬duced in West Indies.

Fl.Per.: August-October.

Erect or spreading, often somewhat straggling annual herb, up to 1.5m tall. Stems covered with stiff brownish hairs. Leaves imparipinnate with 5-11 leaflets; leaflets up to 4 × 2.5 cm, hairy on both surfaces; petiole up to 2 cm long, hairy. Inflorescences axillary racemes with hairy peduncles up to 25 cm long. Flowers c. 1 cm long, pale pink, darker at the base of the standard. Pods somewhat 4-angled, 10-20 mm long and c. 3 mm wide, densely hairy.

Widespread in tropical Africa, Madagascar, Asia, New-Guinea and Australia. Introduced in the West-Indies.

Indogofera astragalina, a legume also known as silky indigo, is a herb found in India, tropical Africa, Madagascar, New Guinea and Australia. It commonly grows in sandy or rocky soils in dry deciduous forests or along roadsides and lake margins. It is also cultivated.