[1] 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.

Inflorescences are short-stalked densely-flowered 1.5–5 cm long racemes, scarcely longer than the leaves.

[2][3] 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).