Jan–MarApr–JunJul–SepOct–Dec
← Explore Plants
Plant · P-945
Japanese Indigo
Persicaria tinctoria
Japanese Indigo is a fast-growing annual grown for its leaves, which yield a blue dye that has coloured cloth across East Asia for centuries; young leaves are also eaten cooked and the seed is edible. Native to moist valleys and streambanks in China and Vietnam, it wants full sun and a moisture-retentive, not overly fertile soil, and needs a long, frost-free season to reach flowering size. It thrives in hot, humid summers and is grown fresh from seed every year rather than overwintered.
Record at a glance
Growing profile
- Sun
- Full Sun
- USDA zone
- Not yet recorded
- Soil
- Sand · Loam · Clay
- Moisture
- Well-Drained · Moist
Vertical layer
Herbaceous- Soil pH
- 6–8
- Plant type
- Annual
- Mature height
- 2–4 ft
- Mature spread
Keep exploring
Similar plants
Discover more plants with shared forest layers or growing conditions.
African Eggplant
Solanum aethiopicum
African Eggplant, also called gboma or scarlet eggplant, is a West and Central African relative of eggplant that gives two harvests from one…
Herbaceous · USDA 8–12
African Rice
Oryza glaberrima
African Rice is a West African grain crop domesticated from a wild relative along the Niger river around 3,000 years ago, still grown as…
Herbaceous
The deeper layer