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Indigofera hirsuta
Fabaceae FAMILY

Indigofera hirsuta

Indigofera hirsuta

Edibility
0/5
Medicinal
2/5

Safety & Hazards

The plant is possibly poisonous and can severely irritate the hooves of animals[1].

Cultivation Details

HabitAnnual
Growth—

A plant of the moist tropics, where it is found at elevations up to 1,350 metres. It grows best in areas where annual daytime temperatures are within the range 22 - 30°c, but can tolerate 13 - 34°c[2]. It is intolerant of frost[3]. It prefers a mean annual rainfall in the range 900 - 1,700mm, but tolerates 750 - 2,700mm[2]. Succeeds in full sun and in light shade[2]. Grows best in a well-drained, moderately fertile, light to medium textured soil[2]. Tolerant of poor soils, it grows well on moderately poor, sandy soils with a low pH[3]. Prefers a pH in the range 5.5 - 6.5, tolerating 4.5 - 8[2]. Indigofera hirsuta has been widely introduced as a cover crop and forage plant in the tropics, and is now naturalized in many parts of the world including the Americas. It may compete with and dominate the native flora, as it is well adapted to a wide range of soil types. As a free-seeding annual without specific Rhizobium requirements, it can quickly spread and naturalize in suitable habitats, especially arable and disturbed land. It has been declared a weed in many countries - in Florida, the species has proven to be self-regenerating, even in fields that have been burned or disked[4, 2, 5]. A summer annual or biennial plant, flowering in the summer and fruiting in early autumn. If cut in late summer, a second growth may be expected[2]. Total life span for dye crops is 2 - 3 years and 1.5 - 2 years for cover crops[2]. This species has a symbiotic relationship with certain soil bacteria, these bacteria form nodules on the roots and fix atmospheric nitrogen. Some of this nitrogen is utilized by the growing plant but some can also be used by other plants growing nearby[6].

Propagation

Seed - sow in situ[3]. The seed has a hard seedcoat and may benefit from scarification before sowing to speed up germination. This can usually be done by pouring a small amount of nearly boiling water on the seeds (being careful not to cook them!) and then soaking them for 12 - 24 hours in warm water. By this time they should have imbibed moisture and swollen - if they have not, then carefully make a nick in the seedcoat (being careful not to damage the embryo) and soak for a further 12 hours before sowing[PFAF]. Germination of treated seed takes 7 - 9 days[3]. Early growth of the seedlings is very slow, it can be 6 weeks or more before they are large enough to be able to weed them[3]. Cite as: Tropical Plants Database, Ken Fern. tropical.theferns.info. 2026-02-20. <tropical.theferns.info/viewtropical.php?id=Indigofera+hirsuta>

Pollinators

Insects

References

  1. [1]A Revision of the Genus Indigofera (Leguminosae-Papilionoideae) in Southeast Asia — Kort I. de, Thijsse G. · 1984 ↩︎
  2. [2]Ecocrop — http://ecocrop.fao.org/ecocrop/srv/en/home ↩︎Basic information on a wide range of useful plants, plus details of environmental needs where available.
  3. [3]Plant Resources of Southeast Asia — http://proseanet.org/ ↩︎Lots of information on the uses of the plants of SE Asia.
  4. [4]Pacific Island Ecosystems at Risk — http://www.hear.org/pier/scientificnames/index.html ↩︎A very good website detailing weed species that have been introduced into the Pacific Islands.
  5. [5]Invasive Species Compendium — http://www.cabi.org ↩︎An immense resource - in depth information on over 900 species of invasive plants (it also has information on animals, fungi etc).
  6. [6]Nodulation Plants in GRIN Taxonomy — United States Department of Agriculture · http://www.ars-grin.gov/~sbmljw/cgi-bin/taxnodul.pl?language=en ↩︎An online database listing plants that have either positive or negative reports on root and stem nodulation with nitrogen-fixing bacteria.
  7. [7]Mansfeld's Database of Agricultural and Horticultural Plants — http://mansfeld.ipk-gatersleben.de/pls/htmldb_pgrc/f?p=185:3:4292127278597336 ↩︎Terse details of a huge range of useful plants.
  8. [8]The Useful Plants of West Tropical Africa. — Burkil. H. M. · Royal Botanic Gardens; Kew. · 1985 - 2004 ↩︎Brief descriptions and details of the uses of over 4,000 plants. A superb, if terse, resource, it is also available electronically on the Web - see http://www.aluka.org/
  9. [9]Protabase - Plant Resources of Tropical Africa. — http://www.prota.org ↩︎An excellent on-line database with detailed information on over 3,200 species of useful plants of Africa.
  10. [10]World Agroforesty Centre — http://www.worldagroforestry.org/ ↩︎An excellent online database of a huge range of trees giving very good information on each plant - its uses, ecology, identity, propagation, pests etc.
  11. [PFAF]Plants for a Future — pfaf.org ↩︎