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Indigofera arrecta
Also called Bengal Indigo, Java Indigo
Natal indigo is a shrubby legume grown historically as a source of indigo dye and today occasionally as a green manure crop. It is a warm-climate plant, so it does best with sun, warmth and well-drained soil.
Indigofera arrecta, variously called the Bengal, Java, or Natal indigo, is a species of flowering plant in the family Fabaceae. It is native to Sub‑Saharan Africa, the Arabian Peninsula, and Madagascar, and has been introduced to the Indian Subcontinent, Southeast Asia, some of the islands of Indonesia, the Philippines, and Queensland in Australia.
Today it is occasionally used as a green manure, but historically was a major source of Indigo dye, with 600,000 hectares (1,500,000 acres) under cultivation in India in 1896, declining to a few thousand hectares 60 years later.
Pink Flowered Indigo · Australian indigo · Indigofera cassioides · Indigofera cordifolia · Trailing indigo · Himalayan Indigo · Indigofera himalayensis · Roughhairy indigo · Indigofera howellii · Kirilow's indigo · Narrowleaf Indigo · Indigofera pendula
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Indigofera arrecta by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.
The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.
Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.
