Java Indigo
Indigofera arrecta
Also known as Natal indiago, Bengal indigo
About Java Indigo
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.
Description adapted from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Plant Details
- Scientific name
- Indigofera arrecta
- Genus
- Indigofera
- Family
- FABACEAE
- Habit
- Undershrub
- Habitat
- Along roadsides and moist deciduous forests
- Native to
- Africa
- Distribution
- India, Ethiopia, Middle East, Indonesia, Java, Laos, Sunda Islands, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Sumatra, Vietnam
- Flowering & fruiting
- September-December
- Conservation status
- Not Evaluated (NE)
Fabaceae
Legume/Bean family
Java Indigo belongs to the Fabaceae family.
The illustration represents the family — not necessarily this exact species.
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