Indigofera pendula Franch.

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Credits

Article from Bean's Trees and Shrubs Hardy in the British Isles

Recommended citation
'Indigofera pendula' from the website Trees and Shrubs Online (treesandshrubsonline.org/articles/indigofera/indigofera-pendula/). Accessed 2024-09-11.

Genus

Indigofera

Other taxa in genus

Glossary

apex: (pl. apices) Tip. apical At the apex.
appressed: Lying flat against an object.
calyx: (pl. calyces) Outer whorl of the perianth. Composed of several sepals.
glabrous: Lacking hairs smooth. glabrescent Becoming hairless.
midrib: midveinCentral and principal vein in a leaf.
imparipinnate: Odd-pinnate; (of a compound leaf) with a central rachis and an uneven number of leaflets due to the presence of a terminal leaflet. (Cf. paripinnate.)

References

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Credits

Article from Bean's Trees and Shrubs Hardy in the British Isles

Recommended citation
'Indigofera pendula' from the website Trees and Shrubs Online (treesandshrubsonline.org/articles/indigofera/indigofera-pendula/). Accessed 2024-09-11.

Indigofera pendula on the rock garden at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh (accession 20150068, raised from seed collected on Yulongxueshan, Yunnan, China). 25 August 2022. Image Tom Christian.

A deciduous shrub of spreading habit, ultimately 8 to 10 ft high; young shoots furnished with pale hairs flattened to the bark. Leaves pinnate, 8 to 10 in. long. Leaflets nineteen to twenty-seven to each leaf, oblong to oval, rounded at the apex, where is a short prolongation of the midrib, rounded or tapered at the base, 3⁄4 to 11⁄4 in. long, about 1⁄2 in. wide, soon glabrous above, furnished beneath with appressed pale hairs. Racemes quite pendulous and very slender, the largest 11⁄2 ft long, produced during August and September from the leaf-axils of the current year’s shoots. Flowers of nearly the common broom shape, very numerous, opening successively from the base onwards, each 1⁄3 to 1⁄2 in. long; petals rosy purple, downy outside; calyx downy, with awl-shaped lobes; flower-stalk very short. Pods 2 in. long. Bot. Mag., t. 8745.

Native of Yunnan, China; discovered by Delavay in 1887; introduced by Forrest in 1914. This species is remarkable for the great length and slenderness of its racemes which develop successively along the shoots. At Kew, hard frosts kill it back to the ground, but it springs up again, and as the flowers come on the leafy shoots of the year its blossom is not lost thereby.

A strikingly better than average clone of Indigofera pendula in the trial at RHS Garden Wisley, July 2010. Image John Grimshaw.

A typically uninspiring example of Indigofera pendula in the trial at RHS Garden Wisley, July 2010. Image John Grimshaw.

A pair of Indigofera pendula planted to frame the bridge at the top of the rock garden at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh (accession 20150068, raised from seed collected on Yulongxueshan, Yunnan, China). 25 August 2022.

Indigofera pendula: detail of inflorescence. Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh (accession 20150068, raised from seed collected on Yulongxueshan, Yunnan, China). 25 August 2022. Image Tom Christian.

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