Indigo

This huge shrub grows up to 10 feet (3.0 meters) tall and lives for around 22 years. It is very resistant to destructive insect infestation but susceptible to disease.

It has dozens of very thick, straight stems covered in knobbly, black with white speckled bark, and the wood inside is dark brown.

The branches are very long and slender with hundreds of twigs that and are covered with handfuls of giant, wispy, leaves with tattered edges. The leaves themselves are a shade of yellow that gradient shifts to indigo at the top, flimsy and sticky.

In early spring it produces many tiny, bold blue blossoms with many layers of petals. They detach easily and have a delicate scent that smells like cotton.

In mid-autumn small oblong fruits ripen. The waxy slate skin is thin and inedible, and the very soft black flesh is overwhelmingly sour and juicy. The grey seeds are small and are scattered throughout the fruit.