Indigofera suffruticosa

Formerly like I. tinctoria as indigo producing dye plant in many tropical countries cultivated, to-day for this purpose only very locally in Java, India, Africa and Central America. Nowadays more important as cover crop and green manure plant for coffee and tea in S and SE Asia, America and Africa, used also for contour hedges and in folk medicine. In Central America and the Caribbean area the cultivation was widespread already before Columbus, it originated obviously in Mexico. After the Spanish colonization the cultivation spread on this continent considerably (in the north to Virginia) and the species was introduced as dye plant into the Old World tropics. During the 18th cent. the crop was planted on large scales in Central America (till the arrival of coffee) and the Antilles for export of the dye to Europe; in India and SE Asia (including S China) the cultivation of I. suffruticosa was most important during the 19th cent. for the world trade. Also in W Africa the crop was once widely distributed. Subsp. guatimalensis formerly in El Salvador, presumably also in Guatemala and the Antilles cultivated as dye plant. In the second half of the 19th cent. introduced to SE Asia, and for some time grown in Java on a large scale, later on replaced by I. arrecta. Today occasionally grown as relic dye plant, sometimes also for green manure.