Anil indigo

Indigofera suffruticosa, commonly known as anil, añil or West Indian indigo, is a perennial, somewhat woody-based subshrub or shrub of the family Fabaceae, native to tropical and subtropical America from Mexico and the Caribbean through Central America to northern South America, and now pantropical through cultivation as a dye plant. The plant typically reaches 0.5–2 m in height, with slender, sparingly branched, finely appressed-hairy stems. The leaves are alternate, imparipinnately compound, 5–10 cm long, with 7–15 opposite leaflets that are obovate to oblong-elliptic, 1–2.5 cm long, dull green above and paler grey-green beneath with appressed white hairs. Small, salmon to coppery-pink, pea-like flowers, 4–6 mm long, are arranged in short, dense axillary racemes 2–4 cm long, shorter than the leaves. The fruits are very characteristic: cylindrical, slightly curved (sickle-shaped) legumes 1.5–2 cm long, conspicuously inflated and turning blackish at maturity, each containing four to eight small reddish-brown seeds. The plant yields a deep blue dye on fermentation of the foliage.