Indigofera suffruticosa
Species of legume
Indigofera suffruticosa, commonly known as Guatemalan indigo, small-leaved indigo (Sierra Leone), West Indian indigo, wild indigo, and anil, is a flowering plant in the pea family, Fabaceae.
Anil is native to the subtropical and tropical Americas, including the Southern United States, the Caribbean, Mexico, Central America, and South America as far south as northern Argentina. This species has been widely introduced to other parts of the world and today has a pantropical distribution. It is an erect branching shrub growing to 1 m (3.3 ft) tall with pinnate leaves, and is commonly found growing in dry, highly disturbed areas such as roadsides and fallow fields.
Anil is commonly used as a source for indigo dye, and if mixed with Palygorskite clays, can produce Maya blue, a pigment used by the Mesoamerican civilizations.
Sources and credits
This article is adapted from the Wikipedia article “Indigofera suffruticosa”, written by its contributors and licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Fathomly has changed the layout, removed citation markers, navigation and maintenance notices, and adjusted punctuation. This adapted version is shared under the same license. For references, see the original article.
Images, from Wikimedia Commons:
- Indigofera suffruticosa - Köhler–s Medizinal-Pflanzen-076.jpg by Franz Eugen Köhler, Köhler's Medizinal-Pflanzen, Public domain
- Semillas anil.jpg by Unknown author, See file page
- Hojas anil.jpg by Creyes at English Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0
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