Indigofera pseudotinctoria seed

LATIN NAME: Indigofera pseudotinctoria

COMMON NAME: False Indigo

The false indigo is a handsome, low, spreading, many-branched, deciduous shrub of the warm, sunny places, and its fine, pinnate leaves of the many small oval leaflets and its small, pink or reddish-purple, pea-like flowers in the long, upright clusters, followed by the small, round, brown pods, have made it a treasured and fine plant of the region. It grows as a low, spreading, many-branched, deciduous shrub, reaching up to one metre and a half or so, with the many slender, arching branches bearing the alternate, pinnate leaves of the many small, oval, pointed leaflets and, through the summer, the small, pink or reddish-purple, pea-like flowers in the long, upright clusters, followed by the small, round, brown pods of the few seeds. It is a species of the flowering shrub in the pea family, and it is native to the warm, sunny places of the eastern Asia, while it is treasured for its fine, pink flowers and its fine, tough form, and it is known as the false indigo.

In the pea family it is the pink-flowered, nitrogen-fixing indigo of the warm banks, a shrub that holds the ground as it feeds the bees.

Scientific Research & Plant Biotechnology

The false indigo holds a recognised place in the soil-ecology papers of the pea shrubs, and the partnership between its roots and the soil bacteria that draws the nitrogen from the air has kept the ecologists interested for years. The botanists have mapped its place in the pea family and the warm, sunny flora of the region, and the insect ecologists have watched the bees come to the small, pink, pea-like flowers. It is a shrub of the tough, hard-working kind, and the growers of the dry garden and the bank keep it in their catalogues.

Ecological & Economic Value & Wide Applications

In the dry garden, the false indigo is the pink-flowered shrub that feeds the ground. Its pea-like flowers feed the bees, its small, brown pods feed the birds, and the low, spreading, tough growth holds the bank and shelters the small creatures. It is treasured for the long, upright clusters of the pink flowers and the easy ways in the warm, sunny, well-drained ground. Pink-flowered, tough and soil-building.

Drop the hard seeds into a cup of warm water and leave them to soak for a day, then sow them at a shallow depth in pots of sandy, free-draining soil, keep the pots warm and bright and water them regularly, and the first shoots will come up steadily.