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Indigofera decora Lindl.

Modern name

Indigofera decora Lindl.

Synonyms

Hedysarum incanum Thunb. (1784), not Indigofera incana Thunb. (1800); Hedysarum incarnatum Willd., nom. illegit.; Indigofera incarnata (Willd.) Nakai

A low deciduous shrub 1 to 2 ft high, perhaps more in mild districts. Stems reddish brown, slender, bearing pinnate leaves 4 to 6 in. long at intervals of 1 to 112 in. Leaflets seven to thirteen, 1 to 212 in. long, 12 to 1 in. wide, ovate-lanceolate to oval, with a short, abrupt, bristle-like tip, glabrous above, furnished beneath with fine hairs. Racemes 6 in. long, produced in the leaf-axils, twenty to forty flowers on each. Flowers 58 to 34 in. long, each borne on a slender stalk 14 in. long, the oblong standard petal white, lined with pale crimson towards the base; wing-petals pink. Calyx with broadly triangular lobes. Bot. Mag., t. 5063.

Native of China and Japan; introduced about 1845 by Fortune, who found it growing in the gardens of Shanghai. It is a charming dwarf shrub, flowering freely in July and August, its shoots being mostly cut back to the ground in winter. It is not adapted for rough treatment, and should be given a front place in the shrubbery, or even a place in the rock garden.

f. alba Sarg. I. incarnata f. alba (Sarg.) Rehd. – Flowers white.


Genus

Indigofera

Other species in the genus