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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
- 12–24 in
- Plant spacing
- 12–18 in
- Root type
- Fibrous-shallow
- Spread pattern
- None
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The deeper layer
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- Primary
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- Secondary
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- Byproduct
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Behind the record
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