Indigofera rugosa Benth.

Scientific Description

Prostrate,spreading or scrambling, shrub, spindly shrub (broom-like). Stems terete, not spiny, hairy; pustules or glands absent. Leaves or phylloclades clearly present, simple, alternate, continuous with stem, 20-45 mm long, 8-20 mm wide, hairy, with simple hairs, flat with flat margins; margins entire; tubercles absent; pustules or glands absent. Stipules present and persistent to older leaves. Pedicel present, 3-3.5 mm long, hairy. Bracteoles present but early deciduous. Calyx 5 mm long, not accrescent, hairy, with simple hairs, ribless; pustules or glands absent. Corolla 6.5 mm long, multicoloured, mostly pink or purple, with some pink or purple spots, streaks or blotches; claws absent; standard 10-10.5 mm long, hairy at least in part, not auriculate, wings 7-8 mm long, not auriculate, keel 12-13 mm long, not beaked, not auriculate, hairy at least in part. Stamens ten; anthers 1.4-1.5 mm long, at two different levels (filaments alternately long and short); filaments united in an open sheath with one free stamen, 5-10 mm long. Ovary stipitate or sessile or subsessile, hairy or glandular; style 8-12 mm long, hairy or glandular towards the base, bearded (with a tuft of hairs at apex), terete. Fruit dehiscent (a pod or follicle), 15-20 mm long, 3-4 mm wide, sessile or subsessile, not constricted between the seeds, round in cross-section, hairy, with simple hairs, not beaked. Flowers in June, July, August and September. Occurs in the Eremaean Botanical Province, in the Pilbara and Gascoyne IBRA regions.