Indigofera hilaris, the red bush indigo or gay indigofera, is a species of leguminous shrublet in the genus Indigofera (family Fabaceae).
The genus name Indigofera is Neo-Latin for "bearing indigo" (indigo is a purple dye originally obtained from some Indigofera species). Hilaris, from the Ancient Greek, means "cheerful, merry", referring to the bright, colourful display of the flowers.
Indigofera hilaris is a perennial shrublet with erect annual stems up to 60 cm from a thick woody rootstock. Leaves are pinnate, with one to four pairs of narrow elliptical, silky and often folded leaflets; basal leaves are reduced, becoming scaly. Stipules are 2âÂÂ9 mm long, linear and stiff. Inflorescences are short-stalked densely-flowered 1.5âÂÂ5 cm long racemes, scarcely longer than the leaves. Flowers are reddish-pink to carmine, 7âÂÂ8 mm long and about 6 mm in diameter. Pods are 10âÂÂ30 mm long, cylindrical and straight. Flowers bloom from July to December, especially after fires.
Indigofera hilaris grows in open grasslands through eastern South and tropical Africa in Tanzania, Zambia, Zaire, Malawi, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Eswatini, Lesotho and South Africa (Limpopo, Mpumalanga, Gauteng, North-West, Free State, KwaZulu-Natal, Eastern Cape).