Indigofera linnaei Ali

Ali, S.I. (1958) Botaniska Notiser : 549.

Birdsville Indigo; Nine-leaved Indigo; Indigo, Birdsville; Indigo, Nine-leaved

Shrublet 20-90 cm tall wiith a long taproot and ascending branches.Stipules triangular, 2-4 mm long; rachis 3-18 mm long.

Leaflets 3-10, alternate, ovate to narrowly vate3-15 x 2-5 mm, nerves not visible, petiolules ca. 1 mm long. Leaflet surfaces clothed in prostrate hairs. Stipules hairy, triangular, ca. 3 x 1.5-2 mm, apex aristate. Venation difficult to discern because of the covering of hairs.

Racemes 0.5-2.5 cm long; bracts triangular, 2 x 1 mm. Pedicels 0.5 mm long. Flowers red to orange red, 3-4 mm long; calyx cup-shaped, 1.5 mm long and wide, teeth narrowly triangular, 2.5 mm long; standard broadly ovate to orbicular, 3-4.5 x 2.5-4 mm and hairy on the back; wings 3-4 x 1-1.5 mm, glabrous, margins shortly ciliate; keel petals 3-4 x 1.5 mm, glabrous, shortly ciliate; staminal tube 2.5-4 mm long; ovary strigose; ovules 2-3.

Pod straight, spreading, globose, 3-8 x 1.5-2 mm, covered in basifixed hairs, slightly beaked. Seeds 2-3, rounded to square, globulose, ca. 1 x 1 mm, light brown mottled dark brown, with a smooth testa.

Features not available.

Occurs in WA, NT, NEQ, CEQ and wideaspread through much of northern central Australia. Altitudinal range from near sea level to 780 m. Grows in deciduous vine thicket, various types of woodland, shrubland and wooded grassland. Also from India through to Malesia, Melanesia to New Guinea.

The cause for 'Birdsville Disease' with horses in Australia (De Kort & Thijsse 1984).