Indigofera caroliniana
Indigofera caroliniana, the Carolina indigo, is a suffruticose herbaceous plant in the legume family that is endemic to the Coastal Plain of the Southeastern United States.
Description
Indigofera caroliniana is a suffruticose herbaceous plant, typically 0.5–1.2 m tall, occasionally reaching 2 m. Leaves are 5–10 cm long, odd-pinnate, with a finely hairy rachis and 9–15 obovate to oblanceolate leaflets, each 1–2.5 cm long and 5–10 mm wide. Both surfaces are minutely strigillose, with trichomes appearing attached at their midpoint; leaflets are stipellate. Inflorescences are slender, axillary or terminal racemes, 6–20 cm long, usually exceeding the subtending leaf. Flowers are loosely arranged, each on a ~1 mm pedicel with a small triangular bract. Petals are pinkish to yellowish-brown; the standard and keel are 5–6 mm long, wings slightly shorter and adherent to the pouched keel. Stamens are diadelphous, with the connective extending above the anthers. The fruit is a short-stipitate, beaked legume, 5–10 mm long, containing one to three seeds.Indigofera caroliniana has stem tubers in its root system that store non-structural carbohydrates. These allow it to resprout after fire and for the plant to persist through periods of fire exclusion.