Scarlet-pea

Indigofera miniata, commonly called scarlet pea or coastal indigo, is a low-growing perennial legume of the family Fabaceae. It produces slender, prostrate to ascending stems up to about 60 cm long arising from a woody rootstock, with pinnately compound leaves bearing five to nine small, oblong to elliptic leaflets covered in fine appressed hairs that give the foliage a silvery cast. From late spring through autumn it bears short axillary racemes of distinctive salmon-pink to brick-red pea-flowers, each about 8 to 12 mm across, succeeded by narrow, slightly curved cylindrical legume pods containing several small seeds. The species is native to the south-central and south-eastern United States (Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, Alabama and Florida), Mexico, Guatemala and Cuba, where it grows in prairies, sandy savannas, open pine woodlands and coastal grasslands. It is classified as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List.