Indigofera jucunda fruiting

Indigofera jucunda, the showy indigo or river indigo, is a branched shrub or small, slender tree of up to 3 m (SA Tree List No. 226.4). It used to be called I. cylindrica and I. frutescens in the past. The plant is sometimes deciduous.

The straight and narrow, cylindrical pods appear in autumn. Here they can be seen in different stages of ripening on the same plant.

The species distribution lies in the Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal coastal areas, as well as in Swaziland.

I. jucunda is often seen in gardens in South Africa, sometimes living in very different climates to their natural habitat. (Coates Palgrave, 2002; Van Wyk and Van Wyk, 1997).