Indigophera miniata
Family: Fabaceae
Plant Description: Perennial with prostrate, reclining, or low ascending stems to 1 m long. Leaves pinnate with grayish leaflets, 8-25 mm long, alternate. Flowers in spikelike racemes, strongly bilateral, the upper petal 6-20 mm long, salmon-rose to light red.
Plant Trivia:
Field Identification:
Occurrence: Common on sandy soils in prairies, openings, and dunal areas of the barrier islands.
Bloom Period: April – October
Plant Use: Host plant to cassius blue, reakirt’s blue, and funereal dusky wing butterflies. Indigo dye is extracted from some Indigofera species.
Key to the species of Indigofera:
- Stems prostrate to ascending, upper petal 6-20 mm long……..I. miniata
Shrub to 2 m high, upper petal 5 mm long…………..I. suffruticosa
stxflora 