703. INDIGOFERA HOWELLII Brian Schrire, Susyn Andrews and ...

703. INDIGOFERA HOWELLII 

Leguminosae 

Brian Schrire, Susyn Andrews and Malcolm Pharoah 

Summary. Indigofera howellii Craib & W.W. Smith from NW Yunnan and 

NE Myanmar is described and illustrated. Cultivated specimens of I. howellii 

from several gardens are discussed. 

‘Yunnan is a home of beauties.’ 

(I.B. Balfour to A.K. Bulley, March 31, 1897) 

The genus Indigofera is much underrated in horticulture and deserves 

far more attention for its graceful habit and in particular for its 

long flowering season, with sprays of flowers in shades of pink to 

crimson-red or purplish-rose from late April to October. 

The species we (BS and SA) are concerned with here has possibly 

been introduced into cultivation several times since the early 1900s, 

albeit under different misapplied names, which has helped to hide its 

true identity. It has remained uncommon despite being one of the 

most attractive and prolifically flowering taxa, with its more or less 

horizontally-held, long racemes of bright reddish-pink to magenta 

pea-shaped flowers (Anon, 2004). 

The earliest collections of what should now be known as Indigofera 

howellii were made by the French medical missionary Jean-André 

Soulié (1858–1905) in northwest Yunnan in the area around Tsekou 

(now Chigu) in mid 1895. Both Soulié 1305 (P!) and 1466 (P!) were 

eventually misidentified as I. pendula Franch. (see below). 

Within the same district, the Abbé J.T. Monbeig (1875–1914) 

collected in 1912 Monbeig 58 (P!, NY!), 59 (E!, K!) and s.n. (P!, 

GH!) at 1200 m. All were later named as I. subverticillata by the 

botanist F. Gagnepain. The English plant collector Frank Kingdon 

Ward (1885–1958) made an unnumbered collection (E!) in 1913, 

between 2743 and 3048 m somewhere in northwest Yunnan. This 

was identified as ?pendula. All of the above are in fact I. howellii. 

Indigofera potaninii was described by Craib (1913). He based his 

description of this new species on material collected by G.N. Potanin 

(1835–1920), a Russian explorer and plant collector, who made four 

major expeditions into eastern Asia including Mongolia and China, 

mainly in Shanxi, Gansu and Sichuan, between 1876 and 1894. 

Curtis’s Botanical Magazine 2011 vol. 28 (2): pp. 73–91 

© The Board of Trustees of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew 2011. 73

Potanin s.n. (LE!, K!) was collected in western Gansu in 1885. More 

recently, this specimen and thus the species has been redetermined by 

BS as I. szechuensis Craib, a species introduced by Roy Lancaster into 

cultivation in the United Kingdom under Lancaster 959 in the early 

1980s. Therefore I. potaninii Craib must be regarded as a synonym of 

I. szechuensis. In horticulture, the name I. potaninii refers to a number 

of different Indigofera species and it should be abandoned. The recent 

account of Indigofera in the Flora of China (Xinfen & Schrire, 2010) has 

incorrect distribution and habitat notes (see correct distribution on 

page 90). 

No mention was made of Indigofera potaninii by W.J. Bean (1914), 

then the Assistant Curator at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. 

Bean (1933, 1973) did however refer to material collected by 

William Purdom in Gansu, Purdom 539a, which should now be 

called I. amblyantha Craib. 

A collection, Farrer 260 from Gansu in 1914–1915, was identified 

as I. potaninii (Bean, 1973). Seed was sent to Sir Frederick Stern’s 

chalk garden at Highdown, near Worthing in Sussex, where it was 

grown on and sent to Kew in 1921 for identification (K!). Another 

of his collections was Farrer 1241, from Upper Burma (now northeast 

Myanmar) in 1919. Plants of this were grown at Gunnersbury 

House, Acton, Middlesex, one of four properties owned by Leopold 

de Rothschild (1845–1917). Herbarium material from this collection 

came to Kew in August 1921, J.H. s.n. (K!), where it was identified as 

‘Indigofera sp. very near I. potaninii (not matched)’. Both these Farrer 

numbers appear to be I. pendula, which is closely related to I. howellii. 

However, I. pendula occurs in north-west and west Yunnan as well 

as south-west Sichuan. To date, we have been unable to locate the 

original herbarium specimens of the two Reginald Farrer collections 

mentioned above and remain puzzled by the out-of-range localities 

of Myanmar and Gansu. The only area to our knowledge where the 

two species overlap is around Zhongdian, Yunnan (see page 82). 

The first time that Indigofera potaninii appeared in one of Hilliers’ 

nursery catalogues was in No. 32 that was produced in 1921–1922 

(John Hillier, pers. comm.). It mentioned that this was a new species 

and cost 3/6 per plant (Anon, 1921). It was not until Catalogue No. 

38T (1928–1929) was published that a description was given: 

74 © The Board of Trustees of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew 2011.

Plate 703 Indigofera howellii christabel king

‘Graceful, hardy, Chinese species. The most shrubby of 

all the Indigoferas, attaining about 5ft. The long arching 

branches bear up to 10 in. panicles of clear pink flowers 

.... 3/6 & 5/6.’ (Anon, 1928) 

According to John Hillier, this was the first descriptive catalogue 

that the firm of Hillier & Sons produced and the work was carried 

out by his father, 23 year-old Harold, later Sir Harold Hillier 

(1905–1985). This first description was somewhat padded out in 

Catalogue No. 1P (1937–1938): 

‘A very elegant Chinese species. The most shrubby of 

all the Indigoferas, attaining about 8ft. The long arching 

branches bear panicles as much as 10ins. long of clear pink 

flowers, which are conspicuous from June until the end of 

September ...2/6 to 5/6.’ (Anon, 1937) 

In the Supplementary List T.S. 20 (1938–1939), there is an interesting 

statement in the description of I. amblyantha. 

‘Very similar in every way to I. Potaninii and with all the 

good qualities of that valuable summer flowering species. 

Flowers shrimp pink..... 5/6.’ (Anon, 1938) 

Postwar catalogues have a slightly different description and it is quite 

possible that a different taxon was involved. In Catalogue No. 49 T 

(1952–1953), the description under I. potaninii wasasfollows: 

‘Graceful shrub up to 5ft high. Flowers clear pink in racemes 

4–5ins. long ...6/6 to 8/6.’ (Anon, 1952) 

Suddenly, the flower spikes have gone from 10 in. in length to 

4–5 in.! We know there was some confusion over the Hillier names 

as specimens of I. ambylantha had been labelled as I. potaninii in their 

arboretum. Between 1962 and 1977, the highest number of I. potaninii 

(whatever it was) sold per year was 86 plants and the lowest was 19 

(John Hillier, pers. comm.). 

Reginald Farrer (1880–1920) was a Yorkshireman with a passion 

for plants, an author, traveller and horticulturist. On April 24, 1919, 

while collecting with E.M.H. Cox in what was then known as Upper 

Burma, they came across a shrub growing in light brushwood in 

boulders by a stream at 1981 m, at the foot of Hpimaw Hill (Cox, 

1930). This was Farrer 866 (E!) and it had magenta-pink flowers. It was 

left as Indigofera sp. until described by W.G. Craib and W.W. Smith 


as I. howellii (Anon, 1920). Farrer 866 was used as a syntype of this 

species along with E.B. Howell 15 (K!, E!). 

Very little is known about Edward Butts Howell (1879–1952), 

who worked for the Chinese Maritime Customs Service (until 1912 

it was the Imperial Maritime Customs Service) from March 1899 

as a ‘Fourth Assistant, B (additional)’ until he retired (actually he 

resigned) on April 30, 1930 as Commissioner of Customs at ‘Tientsin 

and Chinwangtao (temp.)’ in northern China (Figs. 1 and 2). He 

was awarded the Order of the Chia Ho, Fourth Class (July 1919) 

and Third Class (September 1923) (R. Bickers & N. Martland, pers. 

comm.). From 1911, he was the Assistant-in-Charge of the Custom 

House in Tengyueh (now Tengchong), NW Yunnan. 

‘I arrived here on the 4 th January and am quite delighted 

with the place. Imagine the scenery of rural England with 

the hills & moors of Scotland, the climate of Switzerland 

in spring & the knowledge that one can go anywhere, 

can camp, shoot, fish & ride anywhere one likes without 

the possibility of the slightest impediment or discourtesy! 

I have already been out several times during weekends & 

have seen enough to make me long for more.’ (Letter from 

Howell to Prof. B. Balfour, February 27, 1911) 

Tengyueh is situated at c. 1645 m and is about 182 km from 

Bhamo, the nearest Burmese town. 

‘Tengyueh was one of the more recent and remote of the 

treaty ports created in China to serve British and other 

Western interests in trade, diplomacy and evangelism. It 

had only been staffed since 1899........... Compared 

with the older, larger coastal treaty ports, Tengyueh was a 

lonely and difficult European posting.’ (McLean, 2004) 

Thus Tengyueh was regarded as an important staging post to the 

interior of west Yunnan (Howell, 1913). E.B. Howell 15 was collected 

around Tengyueh and tentatively called I. pendula. A note on the Kew 

specimen shows that it must have been gathered in early 1912 or 

before: ‘Certainly near I. pendula Franchet but not quite that species. 

More material will probably prove them quite distinct.’ (W.G. Craib 

October 29, 1912). 


Fig. 1. Portrait of Edward Butts Howell (1879–1952), in 1899. 


Fig. 2. A dinner for staff of the Imperial Maritime Customs Service at Nanking, between 1899 and 

1903. E.B. Howell is seated second from far right. 

The Scottish plant hunter George Forrest (1873–1932) made seven 

sponsored expeditions to Yunnan. There were many demands on his 

time when he was there and thus he made extensive use of native 

collectors, who were based in several different places. Howell had 

collected plants for Isaac Bayley Balfour (1853–1922), Professor of 

Botany and Regius Keeper of the Royal Botanic Garden, Edinburgh, 

who was ‘one of the foremost authorities on the vegetation of Western 

China’ (Howell, 1911; Fletcher & Brown, 1970; McLean, 2004). In 

1902 Bayley Balfour had appointed George Forrest as an Assistant in 

his Herbarium. Bayley Balfour visited China and Japan in 1909 and 

1910, so perhaps he met Howell out there and E.B. Howell 15 was 

one of the specimens Howell sent to him. At that time, Howell had 

his own team of collectors. 

‘Have you received Howell’s collection yet? ......He had 

men from May till September’ [1911]. 

(Letter from G. Forrest at Bhamo to Prof. B. Balfour dated 

May 31, 1912) 


Howell and Forrest became good friends and on the third Expedition 

(1912–1915), Howell supervised two of Forrest’s collectors who were 

left behind to collect in and around the Tengyueh area; he also 

provided a room to dry their specimens (McLean, 2004). 

On the fourth Expedition (1917–1920), Forrest collected F.14880 

(K!) in fruit during September 1917 on the Mekong-Salween Divide, 

at Lat. 28 ◦ 12 ′ N, between 3048 and 3353 m. This 1.2–2.7 m shrub 

was growing in open scrub and pine forests. It has been variously 

identified as Indigofera sp., I. pendula or I. galegoides DC. but is in 

fact I. howellii. There were eight major sponsors for this particular 

expedition, one of whom was Reginald Cory. Seeds of F.14880 were 

distributed from the Royal Horticultural Society’s (RHS) garden at 

Wisley as A72 and A687 (Forrest, 1929). Plants grown from F.14880 

went to the National Botanic Gardens, Glasnevin in Dublin, where a 

specimen was collected from the Iris Border Wall on September 21, 

1937 (DBN!), as well as to the Arnold Arboretum, Boston. Glasnevin’s 

material had come from Cory and a plant was still alive in 1984, S. 

Andrews s.n. (K!). Alfred Rehder had collected specimens at the Arnold 

in August 1920 (K!). 

In the United States, other specimens of Indigofera howellii had been 

collected by Rehder in 1925, 1928 and 1929 (A!) at the Arnold. Seed 

had been sent from RBG Edinburgh (no. 18234) in the early 1920s 

and identified as I. wardiana, an unpublished name. In Cowan (1952), 

the author made no mention of any of the above collections when 

discussing the various Indigofera species that Forrest had collected. 

Reginald Cory (1871–1934) was a director of Cory Brothers, 

who owned colliery, shipping and oil firms. He inherited Dyffryn, a 

magnificent estate in the Vale of Glamorgan, outside Cardiff, from 

his father and according to the landscape architect Thomas Mawson 

was regarded ‘as an amateur landscape gardener and horticulturist 

of insight and ability.’ At Dyffryn, Cory planted out trees and shrubs 

grown from expeditions that he had helped to finance, e.g. to China 

and other countries, including four of the seven George Forrest 

expeditions (Elliott, 1998; McLean, 2004; Day, 2006). 

Following Cory’s death in 1934, there was an unfortunate period 

when many plants were sold before the house and gardens were 


ought by Sir Cennydd Traherne in 1939. He then presented the 

estate to Glamorgan County Council (Banks, 1977). 

Charles C. Eley (1873–1960) of East Bergholt Place in Suffolk, 

was a contemporary of Cory. He was a successful industrialist who 

had a particular interest in Himalayan plants and, unusually for East 

Anglia at this time, succeeded in growing rhododendrons and other 

Himalayan taxa in his garden (Eley, 1925; Hatfield et al., 1980). He 

had also sponsored in a minor way the fourth Forrest expedition from 

1919 to 1920 (McLean, 2004). In around 1969, Dick and Jane Banks 

of Hergest Croft, Herefordshire went to stay at East Bergholt Place 

with Maxwell Eley, Charles’ son. They were given ‘cuttings of an 

Indigofera with long racemes of a good pink.’ Charles Eley had obtained 

material from Reginald Cory but no one knew its name. Could this 

plant have come originally from seed of F.14880? The Banks planted 

out their rooted cutting (1671235) in the NE section of their Mixed 

Border in c. 1972. This plant reached some 1.5 × 1.5 m in height and 

Dick Banks noted on his detailed record card that the East Bergholt 

plant was even taller. In July 1987, Roy Lancaster sent material from 

Hergest to RBG Edinburgh, where it was incorrectly identified as I. 

dielsiana Craib. A cutting (1674141) from the above shrub was planted 

out in the same border in December 1990. When BS and SA saw this 

plant of I. howellii in July 1996, it was 2.1 × 1.5 m, with a single stem 

2–3 cm in diameter, flowering in all its glory (Fig. 3). 

Another collection which we saw in July 1996 was at the home of 

Maurice and Rosemary Foster at Ivy Hatch, Kent. M. Foster 93.099 

had been collected in fruit at the Zhongdian (formerly Chungtien) 

Gorge, Yunnan on November 6, 1993. M. Foster 93.099A was found 

at the top of the plateau at 2800 m, and is I. pendula. Further down 

the road and on the same day M. Foster 93.099B was collected at 

a slightly lower altitude. It was not until young plants were raised 

that the difference was noted. M. Foster 93.099B was identified as 

Indigofera sp., this plant stood 1.5 m high in a pot, in a polytunnel 

when we saw it. Luckily, we had taken herbarium material from this 

plant (S. Andrews & B.D. Schrire 1611 (K!) and can confirm that it was 

I. howellii. Unfortunately, the plant no longer exists and there is still 

some confusion as to its origin (Maurice Foster, pers. comm.). 

Another example of Indigofera howellii was seen by us in May and 

June 1997 at Marwood Hill Gardens, near Barnstaple in North 


Fig. 3. Indigofera howellii at Hergest Croft, Herefordshire. Photograph Brian Schrire. 


Devon, the home of the late Dr Jimmy Smart. This shrub was then 

seven years old but had only been planted out near the Wisteria Pergola 

for six years. It had been a gift from Dick Banks in 1990 and by 

2010 it was 3 × 3 m, having survived the hard winter of 2009–2010 

without any harm even when the temperature dipped to −12 ◦ Cfor 

several days and the ground was frozen for at least two weeks. In this 

area it begins to flower from the end of May and continues until the 

end of October, with the main flowering period being from July to 

late October. 

A rooted cutting from Marwood Hill was planted in June 1998 

in the garden of SA and BS in Kew. Today, this erect, singlestemmed 

shrub is 2.7 × 1.3 m. It is surrounded by other woody 

plants, and flowers profusely from May until the first frosts. To 

our knowledge I. howellii has the longest flowering period of any 

Indigofera. 

A plant (2000–3626) propagated from the Marwood Hill shrub 

was given to RBG Kew by SA in 2000 and this is planted 

against the wall of the Duchess Border, surrounded by part of 

the tender Lavandula collection. Coincidentally, W.J. Bean had 

collected herbarium specimens (K!) in mid 1925 from plants growing 

along the same wall, named as I. dielsiana Craib, and from 

the bed outside the nearby Melon Yard Gate as Indigofera sp. 

Both have been identified as I. howellii but no sources were indicated. 

Anon (1934) listed 15 taxa of Indigofera growing at RBG 

Kew. Most of these were from China and Japan and included 

I. potaninii. 

A later gathering was made by Professor T.T. Yü (1908–1986), 

a distinguished Chinese botanist and plant collector, in northern 

Yunnan, from Atuntze (now Deqin or Dequn) on Mt Miyetzimu, 

at c. 3000 m in October 1937, T.T. Yü 10572 (K!). Some seeds of 

this collection arrived at Kew from RBG Edinburgh in 1938 and 

herbarium specimens were collected in July 1944. They were initially 

named as ‘Indigofera potaninii’ Craib but latterly identified by BS as 

I. howellii. There is also a T.T. Yü collection Yü 10074 which is the 

holotype of the later published synonym I. emarginata Y.Y. Fang & 

C.Z. Zheng (see page 89). 

More recently, Indigofera howellii has been collected by the Kunming, 

RBG Edinburgh & Gothenburg Expedition to Yunnan in 1993, as 


Fig. 4. Indigofera howellii: first year’s growth in the RHS Legume Trials, at Wisley in 2010. Photograph: 

Brian Schrire. 

KEG (B. Aldén et al.) 671 (E!), found in Diqing Prefecture, Deqin Co., 

in a damp side valley between Deqin and the Mekong River at 

3100 m, 28 ◦ 28 ′ N, 98 ◦ 51 ′ E, growing in mixed forest. This collection 

was initially identified as I. monbeigii Craib, which is now a synonym 

of I. mairei Pamp. 

Masquerading as Indigofera heterantha was a plant (1969–17672) of 

I. howellii (K!) at RBG Kew. Located at the flagpole area, this shrub 

of unknown source has not survived. 

An interesting old living specimen of Indigofera howellii turned up in 

a private garden in Killiney, just south of Dublin in the late 1990s. 

At60yearsold,this2.4× 0.9–1.2 m shrub had thick, multiple stems 

and was collected by Mark Bence-Jones s.n. (Jebb & Andrews, 2000; F. 

Reid, pers. comm.). 

On September 11, 2007, the RHS Woody Plant Committee confirmed 

the Award of Merit to Indigofera potaninii following confirmation 

of the name. It had appeared before the committee as a hardy flowering 

plant for exhibition, exhibited by Rupert Eley of East Bergholt 

Place, Suffolk on August 5, 2003. Since then, for reasons explained 


Fig. 5. Indigofera howellii × pendula from Oakover Nursery, in the RHS Legume Trials, at Wisley in 

2010. Photograph: Brian Schrire. 


Fig. 6. Detail of Indigofera howellii × pendula from Oakover Nursery in the RHS Legume Trials, at 

Wisley in 2010. Photograph: Brian Schrire. 


above, the name of this species has had to be changed to I. howellii. 

Rupert Eley (pers. comm.) noted that his specimen was eight years 

old and he considered it a superb plant. Although the severe frosts 

in early 2010 had cut it back, it still flowered extremely well. The 

plant mentioned above has long since died and so Rupert obtained 

material from the Banks at Hergest Croft, thus completing a full 

circle. 

At the current RHS Legume Trials of Campylotropis, Desmodium, 

Indigofera and Lespedeza (2009–2011) at RHS Wisley, I. howellii is 

proving the star of the show (Fig. 4)! 

Interspecific hybrids. Indigofera howellii and I. pendula have a 

tendency to hybridise in cultivation, if grown near to each other. This 

has happened in the past and it must be said that it is difficult to 

distinguish the hybrid when dealing with herbarium material. More 

recently, the two species crossed at Oakover Nurseries, Ashford in 

Kent, owned by Tom Wood, and the result can be seen as no. 50 

on the Trial Grounds at Wisley (Figs. 5 and 6). This hybrid has a 

stronger and deeper flower colour than I. pendula and is a stunning 

plant. 

‘The spikes are held at an angle and perpendicularly. Both 

species were grown beside each other in the nursery. It is 

known in the trade as ‘‘I. pendula dark form’’. This will be 

given a cultivar name in due course.’ (RHS Trials Internal 

Report) 

Propagation. According to Dick and Lawrence Banks, this 

species does get cut back in the winter, but it roots fairly easily from 

cuttings. The third author (MP) at Marwood Hill Gardens propagates 

it either by seed, which is sown in the autumn and over-wintered 

outside, or by semi-ripe cuttings taken in June-July. The latter need 

to be taken as early as possible so that some growth may be made in 

late summer, otherwise they rarely come through their first winter. 

The plant from which Plate 703 was painted was grown at Kew, 

under the entry number 2000-3626 ANDR. The floral details on the 

platearetwicelifesize. 

Indigofera howellii Craib & W.W. Smith, Notes Roy. Bot. Gard. Edinburgh 

12: 207 (1920). Type: China, Yunnan, Tengyueh, E.B. Howell 15 (lectotype E, 

[selected here]; isolectotype K). 


Indigofera subverticillata Gagnep. in Lecomte, Not. Syst. 3:120 (1915) nom. illegit. 

Type: China, Tibet, Tsé kou, 1200 m, 1912, Abbé J.T. Monbeig s.n. (lectotype 

P, [selected here]; isolectotypes A, K, NY, P, GH). See note 1 on page 89. 

Indigofera emarginata Y.Y. Fang & C.Z. Zheng in Acta Phytotax. Sin. 21(3): 329 

(1983), non Perr. (1830), nec G. Don (1832). Type: China, Yunnan, Deqin, 

ca 3200 m, in sylvis montium, T.T. Yü 10074 (holotype SCBI). 

Indigofera deqinensis Sanjappa, Taiwania 37(1): 3 (1992), nom. nov., as ‘deginensis’ 

for I. emarginata Y.Y. Fang & C.Z. Zheng 21(3): 329 (1983). 

Indigofera potaninii misapplied (in major part), non Craib. See note 2 below. 

Description. Erect spreading shrubs 1–3 m tall (up to 5 m against a wall) 

and to 3 m wide. Stems single or few from base, becoming many-branched above; 

branches angular at first, becoming terete below, sparsely to densely strigose 

with appressed, whitish, biramous hairs or glabrescent; reddish-green above 

becoming reddish brown with reticulate-striate bark and parallel rows of lenticels 

below. Stipules 1–4 mm long, deltoid to lanceolate, erect, axillary buds and 

juvenile growth often covered with appressed dark brown hairs. Leaves pinnately 

(7)9–17(23)-foliolate, 3–12(15) cm long, including a petiole of (0.5)1–3(4) cm, 

the leaves variable in length depending on season and age of plants; stipels 

c. 1 mm long, filiform, caducous or lacking, small clusters of reddish pearl 

body glands present between leaflets; terminal leaflet 0.8–3(3.5) × 0.3–1.5(2) cm, 

±2–3 times as long as wide, obovate to oblong or elliptic, apex acute, rounded 

or truncate with a ca 1 mm mucro; laterals often more oblong or elliptic; lamina 

sparsely to densely strigose on both surfaces, paler beneath with clear reticulate 

venation. Racemes 7–26(30) cm long, ± equalling to twice the length of the 

subtending leaf, showy, ± spreading horizontally and curving upwards apically 

(sometimes semi-pendulous in very long racemes), producing a layered look 

through the canopy; peduncle 1–4 cm long (shorter on short shoots), densely (30) 

50–150-flowered, bud zone (above open flowers towards apex) c. 5 mm wide, 

laxly to densely arranged in narrow ‘rat-tails’, characteristically darkish in colour 

with dark brown hairs on the bracts and calyces; bracts 1–2(2.5) mm long, ovate 

to lanceolate, acuminate, ± hooded at base, caducous; pedicels 1–2.5(5) mmlong. 

Calyx 2–3(4) mm long, strigose to subsericeous with white and frequently brown 

hairs, reddish, drying dark; lobes narrowly triangular to lanceolate-acuminate 

± equalling to twice the length of the tube. Corolla 8.5–10.5 mm long, bright 

reddish pink to magenta; standard 5–6 mm wide, elliptic, dorsal surface densely 

puberulent with minute white or greyish hairs, basal blotch white; keel whitish 

to pink pubescent towards the apex and along upper margin, apex obtuse. 

Stamens (6.5)7–8 mm long; ovary appressed pubescent, style ca 2 mm long, bent 

1 Indigofera subverticillata is an illegitimate name because it included as one of its syntypes, the 

specimen Soulié 870 (K!), collected in 1893 from Tatsienlu (Kangding) in Sichuan, which was 

already the holotype of an earlier named species, I. souliei Craib (1913). The Kew holotype of I. 

souliei is exclusively this species, but isotypes at P! (seen by Gagnepain) are mixed collections, also 

containing specimens of I. howellii (hence their inclusion as a syntype of I. subverticillata Gagnep.). 

2 Most material cultivated in Europe which is named Indigofera potaninii belongs to I. howellii, 

although less commonly the name has also been misapplied to I. amblyantha Craib and I. pendula 

Franch. Indigofera potaninii Craib is a synonym of I. szechuensis Craib. 


to erect immediately after ovary. Pods 2–4.5 × c. 0.3 cm, straight, cylindrical, 

± spreading to reflexed, sparsely strigillose or glabrescent, chestnut brown. Seeds 

4–9, up to 3 × 1.8 mm, reniform to quadrate-cylindrical, orange or brown. 

Distribution. NE Myanmar and China: NW Yunnan. 

Habitat. Open scrub, sparse and damp pine and mixed forests on hill 

slopes; (c. 1600) 2700–3400 m. 

Flowering time. April to October (November) 

Conservation status. An assessment of Near Threatened (NT) is 

applied to this species despite an estimated extent of occurrence of

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