Indigo
Indigo
by Liberty Hyde Bailey, Cyclopedia of American Horticulture, 1900
The information below, aside from comments and information found in our letters, has been the only definitive material we have yet been able to find on Indigo. It came from Liberty Hyde Bailey’s 1900 tome Cyclopedia of American Horticulture. It is dry and technical. We’re still looking for more information. SFJ
INDIGOFERA (indigo-bearing). Leguminosoe. Indigo. Perhaps 250 herbs or shrubs in many parts of the world. Lvs. odd-pinnate (rarely digitate): fls. usually small, in axillary racemes or spikes, in color ranging from purple to rose and white; standard mostly roundish, often persisting for some time: keel with a spur on either side: pod various, usually with thin partitions between the seeds. Several species are native to the United States.
Indigo is mostly the product of I. tinctoria, of Asia, but it is also made from the West Indian species, I. Anil. Other species, even of other genera, also yield Indigo. These species were early introduced into the southern states for Indigo-making, and the product was once manufactured to a considerable extent. The plant was introduced into South Carolina in 1742 from the West Indies. When it was found that commercial Indigo could be made, the British Government offered a bounty. In 1775, the production was more than one million pounds of Indigo. The war for independence checked the industry, and thereafter the rising importance of the cotton crop, amongst other things, drove it to the wall. But as late as the middle of the present century, Indigo continued to be made in remote places. Plants still persist in some places as escapes from cultivation. Indigofera tinctoria is perennial, but is grown from seeds, which give from two to four cuttings of herbage the first year. The Indigo is not contained in the plant, but the dye is a product of manufacture from a glucoside indican which is contained in the herbage, and which is obtained as an extract. Indigo seed is offered by seedsmen.
In North America, several species of Indigofera are occasionally grown as ornamental subjects. In the North, they are mostly greenhouse subjects. Propagated by seeds or cuttings, chiefly the latter.
AA. Raceme as long as or longer than the leaf.
decora, Lindl. Weak-growing or even half-climbing shrub, the branches slender and red-tinged: leaflets in 6-8 pairs, broad-lanceolate, usually dropping, sharp-pointed: racemes long, with showy rose-pink fls. about 1 in. long: standard oblong, nearly or quite obtuse, with a heart-like mark near the base: wings linearlanceolate or spatulate, ciliate. China. B.R. 32:22. B.M. 5063. G.M. 31:591. P.M. 16:290. – Regarded as a greenhouse plant and cult. in the open far South. Var. alba is said (G.F. 7, pp. 266, 376, flg.61) to be a hardy herbaceous or half-shrubby plant at the Arnold Arboretum.
macrostachys, Vent. Shrubby, the stems terete and appressed-pubescent: leaftlets 8 –10 pairs, oval-oblong, obtuse but mucronate, pubescent: racemes longer than the lvs., many-fld.: fls.rose. China.
Caroliniana, Walt. Tall and branching: leaflets 5 – 8 pairs, oblong or obovate: fls. small, many, yellowish brown and with short-acute calyx teeth: legume oblong, 2-seeded, less than 1/2 in. long. Perennial, in the pine barrens from N. Carolina south.
AA. Raceme mostly shorter than the leaf.
australis, Willd. (I. angulata, Lindl. I. sylvatica, Sieb.). A very variable species, known by its glabrous aspect, short or nearly obsolete teeth of the calyx and the pod glabrous when young. Erect shrub: lfts. 9-17, varying from oblong to almost orbicular, 3/4 in. or less long, obtuse or retuse: fls. red and mostly showy, the racemes sometimes as long as the lvs.; standard truncate at the base, with a very short claw: pod nearly or quite straight, terete. Austral. B.R. 5:386. L.B.C. 2:149. B.M. 3000. – Extreme South.
tintoria, Linn. Indigo. Fig. 1133. Shrub, 4-6 ft., with silvery branches: lfts. 7-15, thin, rather large, obovate-oblong, pubescent beneath: fls. small, reddish yellow, in short racemes: pod nearly straight, somewhat knotty, 8-12 seeded. S. Asia. – Long cult. And widely distributed. Runs wild South. Indigo was known to the Egyptians.
Anil, Linn. West Indian Indigo. Fig. 1133. Much like the last, but fls. smaller, and pods curved and not knotty. W. Indies, but now runs wild in the southern states. B.M. 6506.
