''Indigofera arrecta'', variously called the Bengal, Java, or Natal indigo, is a species of flowering plant in the family

Fabaceae Fabaceae () or Leguminosae,International Code of Nomen ...

. It is native to SubSaharan Africa, the Arabian Peninsula, and Madagascar, and has been introduced to the Indian Subcontinent, Southeast Asia, some of the islands of Indonesia, the Philippines, and Queensland in Australia. Today it is occasionally used as a

green manure In agriculture, a green manure is a crop specifically cultivated to be incorporated into the soil while still green. Typically, the green manure's Biomass (ecology), biomass is incorporated with a plow or disk, as is often done with (brown) man ...

, but historically was a major source of

Indigo dye Indigo dye is an organic compound with a distinctive indigo, blue color. Indigo is a natural dye obtained from the leaves of some plants of the Indigofera#Uses, ''Indigofera'' genus, in particular ''Indigofera tinctoria''. Dye-bearing ''Indigofer ...

, with under cultivation in India in 1896, declining to a few thousand hectares 60 years later.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q15431807 arrecta Flora of West Tropical Africa Flora of West-Central Tropical Africa Flora of Northeast Tropical Africa Flora of East Tropical Africa Flora of South Tropical Africa Flora of KwaZulu-Natal Flora of the Northern Provinces Flora of Swaziland Flora of Madagascar Flora of Saudi Arabia Flora of Yemen Plants described in 1847