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Indigofera spicata; photograph author not stated, no rights reserved CC0author not stated, no rights reserved · observed growing wild · 2026-09-25

Indigofera spicata Forssk.

Creeping indigo

Fabaceae · Benin, Burkina +40

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Indigofera spicata, photograph (c) James Rogers, some rights reserved (CC BY)Indigofera spicata, photograph (c) James Rogers, some rights reserved (CC BY)Indigofera spicata, photograph (c) James Rogers, some rights reserved (CC BY)Indigofera spicata, photograph (c) James Rogers, some rights reserved (CC BY)Indigofera spicata, photograph (c) xanderferret, some rights reserved (CC BY)Indigofera spicata, photograph (c) xanderferret, some rights reserved (CC BY) 65 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Cold floor (1 night in 100)
7.9°C
Record low 4.6 °C in 44 years, at a typical spot in the range NASA POWER
Warmest month, mean daily high
27°C
Jan, Feb and Mar at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
1,006mm
12 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
27–38DLI
Lowest to highest month (DLI) CHELSA
The year in the habitat's months, not shifted
  1. Jan
  2. Feb
  3. Mar
  4. Apr
  5. May
  6. Jun
  7. Jul
  8. Aug
  9. Sep
  10. Oct
  11. Nov
  12. Dec
Wet summers: the rain comes October to March (the habitat's months, not shifted), read as a summer growing season. rain rule, CHELSA
Not shifted: the shift rule does not apply to this habitat. The chart is in the habitat's months.

Summary

Indigofera spicata, the creeping indigo or trailing indigo, is a species of flowering plant in the family Fabaceae. It is native to Sub‑Saharan Africa, Madagascar, Mauritius, Réunion, and Yemen, and has been introduced to the southeastern United States, various Caribbean islands, Brazil and other locations in Latin America, various Pacific islands, and New South Wales and Queensland in Australia. It was considered to be a promising forage plant, and then shown to be toxic to nearly all livestock, but it is possible that the experiments were conducted on the similar Indigofera hendecaphylla, leading to some confusion.

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Indigofera spicata", CC BY-SA 4.0.

Cultivation

Seasons

The rain rule reads a summer growing season: 70% of the median year's rain (641 mm of 899 mm) falls in October to March, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 22.2 °C against a yearly mean of 20.8 °C). Months are the habitat's, southern hemisphere. The habitat lies within 10° of the equator, where the shift rule does not apply, so they are not shifted for a collection elsewhere.

Rain

899 mm in the median year at the habitat, 641 mm of it October to March. Wettest month January at 124 mm, driest months (2 at 28 mm). Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 700 mm to 1,554 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 1,006 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 899 mm here is the median year's, the twelve monthly medians added, which the rain rule reads. Habitat calendar, southern hemisphere; median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA.

Light

Open sky over the habitat: 27 to 38 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 20, the highest 90th-percentile month 44).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is 7.9 °C, the absolute minimum 4.6 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 36.1 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 14.1 °C in July (across the grid cells of the range 5.4 °C to 20.9 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 27.0 °C in February (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: 7.9 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range (NASA POWER).

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 57 to 62% across the year (monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

How this section is made

Each card states this species' habitat figures with their sources, and what two fixed rules read from them; nothing here says what the plant does, wants or tolerates. The rules · the terms.

Seasons. Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the grid cells of the range: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve moves 4 °C or more and the habitat lies 10° or more from the equator. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain. CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the grid cells of the range. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light. CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.

Temperature. NASA POWER daily minima and maxima over 44 years at a typical spot in the range, lapse-corrected -416 m to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range. The cold floor is the 1st-percentile night named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity. CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the grid cells of the range.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat months, southern hemisphere

Habitat climate of Indigofera spicata through the yearWarmest months January, February and March, mean daily high 27 °C; coldest month July, mean nightly low 14.1 °C; 899 mm of rain in the median year (the twelve monthly medians added). Medians across the range, from CHELSA; the extremes at the edge from NASA POWER. Habitat months, southern hemisphere.0°10°20°30°40°36.1° 99th-percentile day, NASA POWER4.6° lowest night in 44 years, NASA POWER°C · day and nightcold quarter050100150200250mm rainDLI 27–38RH 57–62%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 77 habitat cells, CHELSA cold quarter: the three months around the coldest month's mean nightly low extremes over 44 years at a typical spot in the range, from NASA POWER, marked at the edge, in no month DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C27 / 23–3127 / 24–3127 / 24–3125 / 22–2924 / 21–2823 / 19–2722 / 19–2623 / 21–2825 / 22–2926 / 22–3126 / 23–3126 / 23–31
Night °C17 / 13–2418 / 13–2417 / 13–2417 / 12–2317 / 9–2315 / 6–2214 / 5–2115 / 8–2116 / 11–2117 / 13–2117 / 13–2218 / 13–23
Rain mm124 / 22–243113 / 31–207106 / 72–18374 / 32–23946 / 10–20128 / 3–13228 / 2–13839 / 4–12843 / 5–13577 / 30–173106 / 63–168115 / 38–200
DLI38 / 33–4337 / 35–4336 / 32–4232 / 27–3730 / 23–3528 / 20–3327 / 22–3332 / 25–3636 / 29–4238 / 31–4436 / 32–4238 / 33–44
RH %62 / 53–6762 / 53–6762 / 54–6762 / 55–6860 / 51–6858 / 51–6657 / 49–6659 / 48–6558 / 47–6659 / 51–6561 / 54–6762 / 56–66
How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 77 grid cells holding the 86 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. A dash is a month one or more of those cells has no figure for in the grid (a variable CHELSA does not carry there), so no median is taken rather than one over fewer cells. Extremes and elevation were read at a typical spot in the range, cell 2400:4218 (-30.025, 30.925). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 4.6 °C, 1st-percentile night 7.9 °C, 99th-percentile day 36.1 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Across the range: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 77 distinct grid cells holding 86 of the 86 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 2400:4218 (its coldest month's mean nightly low nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell -30.00_30.625, lapse-corrected -416 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 31 m (cell mean).

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP; the marker is where the records are densest and decides nothing: the climate was read across the cells of the in-range records placed well enough to read one, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeBenin, Burkina, Ghana, Guinea-Bissau, Guinea, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Mali, Nigeria, Niger, Senegal, Togo, Burundi, Central African Republic, Cameroon, Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Gulf of Guinea Is., Rwanda, Zaïre, Chad, Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Sudan, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Angola, Malawi, Mozambique, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Cape Provinces, KwaZulu-Natal, Swaziland, Northern Provinces, Mauritius, Madagascar, Réunion, Yemen · introduced: New South Wales, Queensland, Nauru, New Caledonia, Cook Is., Society Is., Alabama, Florida, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Jamaica, Leeward Is. AB Ant, Puerto Rico, Windward Is., Bolivia, Colombia, Brazil West-Central, Brazil Northeast, Brazil Southeast · regions are the level-3 units of the World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions, as Kew's World Checklist records ranges, some under historical names such as Yugoslavia or Czechoslovakia (how).
Map marker-0.4, 30.483 · in the densest population, 100 records (38% of those in range)
Kew's description“scrambling perennial or subshrub” · “seasonally dry tropical” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 265 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 86 of them placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 199 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 111 km away. 1448 records outside the WCVP native range not used. 179 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km, or with no stated accuracy (admitted only as a person's observation to three decimals), and stay on the map but off the climate.
How this section is made
The map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population inside the densest 4° block of the 265 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Indigofera spicata, photograph 1did not loadIndigofera spicata, photograph 2did not loadIndigofera spicata, photograph 3did not loadIndigofera spicata, photograph 4did not loadIndigofera spicata, photograph 5did not loadIndigofera spicata, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: (c) James Rogers, some rights reserved (CC BY) (4); (c) xanderferret, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2).

Similar habitat climate The 6 nearest by mean daily high, mean nightly low and rain, month by month. How.

Begonia grisea Begonia grisea Begoniaceae Photo: CC BY, Zac PetersonCattleya elongata Cattleya elongata Orchidaceae Photo: CC BY, Renato BandeiraUtricularia parthenopipes Utricularia parthenopipes Lentibulariaceae Photo: CC BY, Fabricio Carvalho da SilvaSincoraea burle-marxii Sincoraea burle-marxii Bromeliaceae Photo: CC BY, Renato BandeiraUtricularia blanchetii Utricularia blanchetii Lentibulariaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, vitordematos12Neonotonia wightii Neonotonia wightii Perennial soybean Photo: CC0, author not stated

Other Indigofera 30 in the reference

Indigofera amblyantha Indigofera amblyantha Pink-Flowered Indigo Photo: CC BY-SA, 阿橋 HQIndigofera ammoxylon Indigofera ammoxylon Fabaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, justine decrooIndigofera australis Indigofera australis Australian indigo Photo: CC BY-SA, James K. DouchIndigofera bungeana Indigofera bungeana False indigo Photo: CC BY, angryphycoIndigofera caroliniana Indigofera caroliniana Carolina indigo Photo: CC0, author not statedIndigofera cassioides Indigofera cassioides Fabaceae Photo: CC BY, Firos AKIndigofera cytisoides Indigofera cytisoides Brilliant Indigo Photo: CC BY-SA, Paul EmmsIndigofera decora Indigofera decora Fabaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, KENPEIIndigofera hedyantha Indigofera hedyantha Regret Indigo Photo: CC BY, Morten RossIndigofera hendecaphylla Indigofera hendecaphylla Trailing indigo Photo: CC0, author not statedIndigofera heterantha Indigofera heterantha Himalayan indigo Photo: CC0, author not statedIndigofera heterophylla Indigofera heterophylla Fabaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, Dave U all 31 ›

Names & registers

Also known as Anil spicata; Anila parkeri; Anila spicata; Indgofera endecaphylla; Indgofera hendecaphylla and 5 more. (GBIF Backbone)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataWikipediaiNaturalist

The record

Family
Fabaceae
Described by
Forssk.
Native to
Benin, Burkina, Ghana +39
Wild records
265 in range · 199 open

Every figure here is derived from public data by a stated rule and names its source; nothing about this species is written for its page by a person or by AI, apart from the marked, credited quotations. How →

Where this page came from built 2026-10-22
GBIF species record gbif.species answeredasked 2026-10-22
GBIF synonyms gbif.synonyms answeredasked 2026-10-22
GBIF common names gbif.vernacular answeredasked 2026-10-22names fetched 2026-10-22
WCVP native range wcvp.distribution answeredas of 2026-06-04
GBIF occurrence records gbif.occurrences answeredas of 2026-10-21GBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.hbdw64, of 2026-10-21; 86 records within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (56 at a botanic garden or arboretum, 12 at a herbarium, 18 at a zoo; Wikidata's list)
Habitat climate climate answeredasked 2026-10-22
Daily extremes (NASA POWER) climate.extremes answeredasked 2026-10-22NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell -30.00_30.625, lapse-corrected -416 m at 6.5 °C/km
Wikidata wikidata answeredasked 2026-10-22
Wikipedia wikipedia answeredasked 2026-10-22
iNaturalist photographs, wild inat.photos.wild answeredasked 2026-10-22from iNaturalist's open data of 2026-09-27: research-grade observations with an open-licence photograph, the 24 whose photographs iNaturalist received last (the open data holds no votes); filled 2026-10-22
iNaturalist photographs, cultivated inat.photos.cultivated not asked
GBIF media gbif.media answeredasked 2026-10-22
OpenAlex papers openalex not askednot yet asked for this reference; a later fill takes the papers from OpenAlex's snapshot

Every source is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, refused, failed, not been asked, or answered twice where one answer is taken (“not taken: two items answered”), and, for a source asked when this page was built, when: the figures are as the source held them that day; a source read from a file (Kew's World Checklist, a GBIF download) says "as of" the file's day instead; a row carried from an earlier build of the page names that build instead. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 103 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

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