疏花木蓝 shu hua mu lan

Galega colutea N. L. Burman, Fl. Indica, 172. 1768; Indi­gofera chuniana F. P. Metcalf.

Herbs, annual or perennial, procumbent or prostrate. Stems with brown gland-tipped trichomes and appressed white medi­fixed symmetrically 2-branched trichomes. Stipules linear, 3-4 mm, with appressed medifixed trichomes. Leaves 1.5-4 cm, (5-)9- or 11-foliolate; petiole and rachis with appressed medi­fixed trichomes and gland-tipped trichomes; petiole 7-10 mm; stipels absent; leaflet blades opposite, elliptic to narrowly ellip­tic, 4-14(-18) × 1.5-4(-8) mm, both surfaces with appressed white medifixed trichomes and gland-tipped trichomes, second­ary veins not visible, base cuneate, apex obtuse and minutely mucronate. Racemes (1-)2-6(-8) cm, laxly flowered; bracts linear, ca. 1 mm. Peduncles and pedicels with appressed medi­fixed trichomes and gland-tipped trichomes. Pedicel ca. 0.5 mm. Calyx ca. 1.2 mm, with spreading medifixed trichomes and gland-tipped trichomes; tube ca. 0.5 mm; teeth linear, ca. 0.7 mm, apex apiculate. Calyces and staminal tubes persistent. Corolla red; standard obovate, ca. 4 mm, outside hairy; wings linear-oblong; keel narrowly obovate. Stamens 3-4 mm; an­thers globose, glabrous, apex mucronate. Ovary linear, densely hairy; style short, glabrous. Legume cylindric, 1.1-2 cm × 1.5-2 mm, with small spreading medifixed trichomes and gland-tipped trichomes; endocarp red blotched. Seeds 9-12 per leg­ume, dark brown, cubic, ca. 1 × 1 mm. Fl. Jun-Aug, fr. Aug-Dec. 2n = 16.

Sandy ground or wastelands; below 500 m. Guangdong, Hainan [India, Indonesia, Myanmar, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Vietnam; Africa, SW Asia, Australia, Pacific islands (New Zealand)].

Material of this species was misidentified as Indigofera laotica Gagnepain by T. Hosokawa (Trans. Nat. Hist. Soc. Formosa 32: 195. 1942).