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Fabaceae FAMILY

Indigofera macrophylla

Indigofera macrophylla

Edibility
0/5
Medicinal
2/5

Safety & Hazards

None known

Cultivation Details

HabitClimber
Growth—

Indigofera species generally grow best in a sunny position, preferring a well-drained but moist soil[1]. Many of the species will also succeed in drier conditions and in poor soils. Unlike most species in this genus, this taxon does not fix atmospheric nitrogen[2].

Propagation

Seed - it has a hard seedcoat and may benefit from scarification before sowing in order to speed up and improve 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. Cite as: Tropical Plants Database, Ken Fern. tropical.theferns.info. 2026-02-20. <tropical.theferns.info/viewtropical.php?id=Indigofera+macrophylla>

Pollinators

Insects

References

  1. [1]Encyclopedia of Tropical Plants - Identification and Cultivation of over 3,000 Tropical Plants — Ahmed Fayaz · Firefly Books Ltd.; New Zealand · 2011 · ISBN 978-1-55407-489 ↩︎A good photograph and terse but detailed information for over 3,000 species of tropical plants. An excellent reference.
  2. [2]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.
  3. [3]African Flowering Plants Database — Conservatoire et Jardin Botaniques. · http://www.ville-ge.ch/musinfo/bd/cjb/africa/recherche.php ↩︎Contains information on over 150,000 plant names (including synonyms) giving a description and habitat, plus a distribution map.
  4. [4]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/
  5. [5]Medicinal Plants in Nigeria (website) — Professor Tolu Odugbemi · http://www.medicinalplantsinnigeria.com/uploads/1/7/4/8/17482593/plantsdatabase.xls ↩︎An on-line database, downloadable in .xls format, it has basic information on 628 species of plants
  6. [6]Some Medicinal Forest Plants of Africa and Latin America — Various · FAO, Rome · 1986 · ISBN 92-5-102361-1 ↩︎Monographs of 40 medicinal plants. It can be downloaded from the internet