Telopea 12(2) 293–307
© 2008 Royal Botanic Gardens and Domain Trust ISSN0312-9764
A revision of the Indigofereae (Fabaceae) in
Australia. 2. Indigofera species with trifoliolate
and alternately pinnate leaves
Peter G. Wilson
1
and Ross Rowe
1, 2
1
National Herbarium of New South Wales, Royal Botanic Gardens, Sydney NSW 2000, Australia
2
present address: Department of the Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts, GPO Box 787,
Canberra ACT 2601, Australia.
Abstract
The second part of a revision of the tribe Indigofereae (Fabaceae) occurring in Australia is
presented, covering those species with consistently trifoliolate leaves and the pinnate-leaved
species with leaflets alternate on the rachis. Ten species are considered here: five are introduced,
four are native and one is endemic. A neotype is chosen for Indigofera glandulosa Wendl. and a
lectotype for its synonym Psoralea leichhardtii F.Muell.
Introduction
In our first paper on Indigofereae in Australia (Wilson & Rowe 2004) we revised Indigastrum
and the simple or unifoliolate species of Indigofera. Here we consider a further set of
species that fall into two broad groups: those with consistently trifoliolate leaves and those
with alternate leaflets. Almost all the alternate leaflet group are introductions to Australia
and, with one exception, the remaining species included in this paper are native but not
endemic. The single endemic species, however, is clearly related to species that occur
outside Australia.
Characters
Particular care should be taken with one of the introduced species that has alternate
leaflets: Indigofera oblongifolia. This species has a low leaflet number (usually 1–3) and
may be mistakenly assessed as being either unifoliolate or trifoliolate.
In this paper, hairs are described as sparse when they are well separated and the stem
or leaf surface is clearly visible, as moderately dense when the hairs are separated by
the length of one arm of the biramous hair (or thereabouts), dense when the arms
overlap but do not fully conceal the epidermis, and very dense when the epidermis is
completely concealed.