Herbs, perennial, strigose, hairs appressed, silvery. Stems procumbent, diffusely branched, 1–5 dm. Leaves 1–3.5 cm; stipules subulate, 1–7 mm; petiole 0.5–8 cm; stipels absent or of reddish hairs; petiolules 1 mm; leaflets (3 or)5–11(–17), usually alternate, rarely opposite, blades oblanceolate, obovate, or narrowly elliptic, 5–25 × 5 mm, similar in size within a leaf, base cuneate, apex acute or truncate, ± mucronate, surfaces glabrous or adaxially glabrate to densely pubescent. Peduncles 1.5–8 cm. Racemes 2–20-flowered, dense or lax, 1.5–9 cm. Pedicels 1 mm. Flowers 7–12 mm; calyx 4–6 mm, lobes usually long-subulate, sometimes triangular; corolla brick red, salmon pinkish, or salmon orange. Legumes brown, irregularly spreading or deflexed, cylindric, straight, 10–40 mm, leathery, densely sericeous. Seeds 2–8, usually brown, sometimes lighter and brown-speckled, cuboid. 2n = 32.

Phenology: Flowering Jan–Oct.
Habitat: Open woods, creek bottoms, ruderal areas, pinelands, hammocks, urban waste areas.
Elevation: 0–1200 m.

Distribution

• Generated Map
• Legacy Map

Ala., Ark., Fla., Ga., Kans., La., Okla., Tex., Mexico (Aguascalientes, Chiapas, Coahuila, Durango, Guanajuato, Guerrero, Jalisco, México, Morelos, Nayarit, Nuevo León, Oaxaca, San Luis Potosí, Tabasco, Tamaulipas, Veracruz), West Indies (Cuba), Central America.

Discussion

Indigofera miniata is sometimes subdivided into vars. floridana, leptosepala, and miniata. They inter­grade and are not clearly differentiated.

Indigofera mexicana Bentham, I. nana Rydberg, and I. ornithopodioides Chamisso & Schlechtendal are illegitimate names that pertain here.

Selected References

None.

Lower Taxa

None.