Stellenbosch University Botanical Garden, South Africa

Common name: True indigo

Family: Fabaceae (Pea)

Distribution: Asia, Africa

IUCN Red list: Not evaluated

Life form: Evergreen shrub / sub-shrub

Comments: This plant been cultivated and highly valued for centuries as the most important source of indigo dye, leading to its common names ‘true indigo’ and ‘common indigo’ before commercial synthetic indigo dye was invented in 1897 nearly entirely replacing plant derived dye by 1914. The original distribution is unknown due the the long history of cultivation, it is now widely naturalised in Asia and into Africa. In modern times it has also become an introduced weed in many parts of the world.