Plants herbs or shrubs with 2-branched hairs. Leaves usually odd-pinnate, sometimes with 1-3 leaflets, or simpl. Flowersusually in axillary, racemose branches. Corollas usually red or pink, falling quicklys or sometimes the banner persistent; bannner petals almsot always pubescent, usually indisinctly veined; keel petals with lateral spurs; uppermost stamen free; anthers almost always apiculate;stigmas terminal, capitate. Pods cylindrical, 4-angled or flattened, usually deshiscent, with 1-many seeds.
Indigofera includes around 700 species which grow in tropical and subtropical regions but it is absent from the Mediterranean region.
Several species were. particularly Indigoera articulata, Indigofera ceoreulea, and Indigofera tinctoria were once of international importance as a source the blue-back dye indigo but, with the development of aniline dyes, they are now only used locally for thie purpose.
