Introduction to Indigofera amblyantha: A Complete Guide to This Plant

Rosales, Faboideae, Indigofera

Mostly distributed in Northeast and North China, mainly growing in hillside shrub thickets and loose rock crevices.

Indigofera amblyantha likes light and is cold-resistant, has low soil requirements, is drought-tolerant and tolerant of poor soil, has strong adaptability to the environment, and has strong temperature adaptability; it is suitable for growing in subtropical regions.

Indigofera amblyantha is a deciduous shrub, about 30-100 cm tall, and the whole plant is often covered with T-shaped hairs or simple hairs. The leaves are pinnately compound, usually odd-pinnate, the leaf tips often have awn-like points, the stipules are relatively small, and the leaf surface has bristles. The raceme is axillary; the calyx has 5 lobes; the stamens are separate, and there are often glands at the tip of the anther connective.

The leaves of Indigofera amblyantha are the raw material for making qingdai. Chop the leaves, ferment for about half a month, add water and rinse out the juice, filter it, then add alkali to obtain qingdai, which can be used to dye cloth and can also be used as a painting pigment.

Indigofera amblyantha has luxuriant branches and leaves, blooms in early summer, and the flowers are elegantly colored and very beautiful. It is suitable for flower hedges, and also suitable for greening along highways, railways, slopes, and roadsides. It is also very widely used as a flowerbed and flower border material.