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Creeping Indigo

Indigofera spicata

Creeping Indigo
Photo: Forest and Kim Starr, CC BY 3.0 us

Creeping indigo is a trailing or scrambling perennial legume from warm, seasonally dry regions of Africa and Arabia, grown mainly as a ground cover or trailing plant in warm climates. Its key requirement is hot, sunny, well-drained conditions.

Family
Fabaceae (Pea & bean family)
Grows as
Shrub, Climber
Light
Full sun
Water
Water deeply, then let the top of the soil dry out between waterings; it tolerates drought once established.
Soil
Free-draining sandy or loamy soil; tolerates poor soil.
Temperature
18–35 °C; protect below 5 °C
How easy
Easy
Safety
Toxic: The leaves and seeds of Indigofera species contain toxic compounds; the sources report the plant is toxic to nearly all livestock, so treat it as harmful if eaten.
Native range
Africa, Arabian Pen.
Climate
seasonally dry tropical

About

Indigofera spicata, the creeping indigo or trailing indigo, is a species of flowering plant in the family Fabaceae. It is native to Sub‑Saharan Africa, Madagascar, Mauritius, Réunion, and Yemen, and has been introduced to the southeastern United States, various Caribbean islands, Brazil and other locations in Latin America, various Pacific islands, and New South Wales and Queensland in Australia. It was considered to be a promising forage plant, and then shown to be toxic to nearly all livestock, but it is possible that the experiments were conducted on the similar Indigofera hendecaphylla, leading to some confusion.

Other Indigofera plants

Pink Flowered Indigo · Natal indigo · Australian indigo · Indigofera cassioides · Indigofera cordifolia · Trailing indigo · Himalayan Indigo · Indigofera himalayensis · Roughhairy indigo · Indigofera howellii · Kirilow's indigo · Narrowleaf Indigo

Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Indigofera spicata 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.

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