FABACEAE
Indigofera filipes
Finefoot Indigo
Wildflowers© Joël Roerig (2021) • Lion Trail
Local Context
Probably quite common on the estate. The distribution of the plant is limited to grasslands and woodlands in Southern Africa, often associated with Kalahari sands, roadsides, and disturbed areas.Identification
- Growth: Erect annual or perennial herb (sometimes a dwarf shrub), 0.3–1 m tall, often slender and much-branched, arising from a taproot or woody rootstock.
- Flowers: Small, pinkish-red to purple, arranged in sparse, elongated clusters (racemes) of 3–15 flowers on slender, hair-like stalks.
- Leaves: Pinnately divided into 5–13 very narrow, linear to lance-shaped leaflets (up to 25 mm long) with pointed tips.
- Texture: Leaflets are typically covered in whitish, flattened hairs underneath and are smoother or sparsely hairy above; the back of the main upper petal (standard) is densely hairy.
- Fruit: A somewhat cylindrical, flattened pod (20–28 mm long) sparsely to densely covered in whitish hairs, ending in a persistent, forward-pointing beak.
Did You Know?
William Henry Harvey (1811-1866) first described Indigofera filipes in the Flora Capensis, the foundational text for South African botany. Harvey was a distinguished Irish botanist and phycologist who served as the Colonial Treasurer in Cape Town. Though he is famous for his work on seaweeds, his massive undertaking to catalogue the Cape’s vast plant life earned him a reputation as one of the most influential taxonomists of the 19th century.