FoI
Deep-Purple Indigo
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Deep-Purple Indigo
ative Photo: Krishan Lal
Common name: Deep-Purple Indigo • Nepali: साखिनु Saakhinu, नीर Neer, सखिनिया Sakhiniyaa
Botanical name: Indigofera atropurpurea    Family: Fabaceae (Pea family)
Synonyms: Indigofera cavaleriei, Indigofera hamiltonii

Deep-Purple Indigo is a large hairless shrub, 2-3 m tall, with compound leaves and usually with deep purple flowers in long slender erect spikes 10-30 cm long. The spikes are as long or longer than the leaves. Flowers are very numerous, 6-9 mm long, pea-flower-shaped, dark red or deep purple. Calyx c. 2.5 mm long, teeth short, deltoid. Corolla red. Branches are velvety when young. Leaves are compound, 15-22.5 cm long, stalk about 2.5-5.0 cm long. Leaflets are 11-17, about 2.5-4.0 cm long, oblong, obtuse, hairless. Fruit is about 2.5-3.8 cm long, linear, hairless, 6-10-seeded. Deep-Purple Indigo is found in the Himalayas, from Kashmir to Bhutan and China, at altitudes of 700-3200 m. Flowering: July-September.

Identification credit: Krishan Lal Photographed in Sirmaur Distt, Himachal Pradesh.

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