Indigofera is a varied genus that has shown unique characteristics making it an interesting candidate as a potential perennial crop.[clarification needed] Specifically, there is diverse variation among species with a number of unique characteristics. Some examples of this diversity include differences in pericarp thickness, fruit type, and flowering morphology. The unique characteristics it has displayed include potential for mixed smallholder systems with at least one other species and a resilience that allows for constant nitrogen uptake despite varying conditions.
Tree
Species of Indigofera are mostly shrubs, though some are small trees or herbaceousperennials or annuals. The branches are covered with silky hairs. Most of them have pinnate leaves made of three foliolates with short petioles.[3][4]: 341
Small flowers grow in the leaf axils from long peduncles or spikes, their petals come in hues of red or purple, but there are a few greenish-white and yellow-flowered species.[4]: 341 Indigofera flowers have open carpels, their organ primordial[clarification needed] is often formed at deeper layers than other eudicots.[5] This variety could have significant implications on its role in an actual perennial polyculture. For example, different flowering morphologies could be artificially selected for in varying directions in order to better fit in different environmental conditions and with different populations of other plants.
Fruit
The fruit is a long, cylindrical legume pod of varying size and shape.[3][4]: 341
The types of fruit produced by different species of Indigofera can also be divided into broad categories that again show great variation. The three basic types of fruit categories can be separated by their curvature including straight, slightly curved, and falcate (sickle-shaped). In addition, several of the species including Indigofera microcarpa, Indigofera suffruticosa, and Indigofera enneaphylla have shown delayed dehiscence (maturing) of fruits[6] This variation could again allow for artificial selection of the most abundant and nutritious fruit types and shapes.
Another way to categorize Indigofera is by its pericarp thickness. The pericarp (the tissue from the ovary that surrounds the seeds) can be categorized as type I, type II, and type III with type I having the thinnest pericarp and fewest layers of schlerenchymatous (stiff) tissue and type III having the thickest pericarp and most schlerenchymatous layers. Despite the previous examples of delayed dehiscence, most fruits of this genus show normal explosive dehiscence to disperse seeds.[7] Similar to fruit shape, the variation in fruit sizes allows for the thickest and most bountiful fruits to be selected.
Uses
Indigo dye
Several species, especially Indigofera tinctoria and Indigofera suffruticosa, are used to produce the dyeindigo. Scraps of Indigo-dyed fabric likely dyed with plants from the genus Indigofera discovered at Huaca Prieta predate Egyptian indigo-dyed fabrics by more than 1,500 years.[8] Colonial planters in the Caribbean grew indigo and transplanted its cultivation when they settled in the colony of South Carolina and North Carolina where people of the Tuscarora confederacy adopted the dyeing process for head wraps and clothing. Exports of the crop did not expand until the mid-to late 18th century. When Eliza Lucas Pinckney and enslaved Africans successfully cultivated new strains near Charleston it became the second most important cash crop in the colony (after rice) before the American Revolution. It comprised more than one-third of all exports in value.
The chemical aniline, from which many important dyes are derived, was first synthesized from Indigofera suffruticosa (syn.Indigofera anil, whence the name aniline).
In Indonesia, the Sundanese use Indigofera tinctoria (known locally as tarum or nila) as dye for batik. Marco Polo was the first to report on the preparation of indigo in India. Indigo was quite often used in European easel painting[clarification needed] during the Middle Ages.[9][10]
^Paulino J, Groppo M, Teixeira S. (2011). "Floral developmental morphology of three Indigofera species (Leguminosae) and its systematic significance within Papilionoideae". Plant Systematics and Evolution. 292 (3): 165–176. Bibcode:2011PSyEv.292..165P. doi:10.1007/s00606-010-0405-z. S2CID23296068.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
^Leite V, Marquiafável F, Moraes D, Teixeira S. (2009). "Fruit anatomy of Neotropical species of Indigofera (Leguminosae, Papilionoideae) with functional and taxonomic implications". The Journal of the Torrey Botanical Society. 136 (2): 203–211. doi:10.3159/08-RA-106.1. S2CID86776541.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
^Schrire BD, Lavin M, Barker NP, Forest F. (2009). "Phylogeny of the tribe Indigofereae (Leguminosae-Papilionoideae): Geographically structured more in succulent-rich and temperate settings than in grass-rich environments". Am J Bot. 96 (4): 816–52. doi:10.3732/ajb.0800185. PMID21628237.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
^"ILDIS LegumeWeb entry for Indigofera". International Legume Database & Information Service. Cardiff School of Computer Science & Informatics. Retrieved 12 February 2017.
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