diff --git a/src/edu/stanford/nlp/semgraph/SemanticGraph.java b/src/edu/stanford/nlp/semgraph/SemanticGraph.java
index 613e6a6019..de1dfe457c 100644
--- a/src/edu/stanford/nlp/semgraph/SemanticGraph.java
+++ b/src/edu/stanford/nlp/semgraph/SemanticGraph.java
@@ -1688,10 +1688,13 @@ public SemanticGraphEdge addEdge(SemanticGraphEdge edge) {
    * dumb, could be made more sophisticated.
    * <br>
    *
-   * Example: "[ate subj>Bill dobj>[muffins compound>blueberry]]"
+   * Example: {@code [ate subj>Bill dobj>[muffins compound>blueberry]]}
    * <br>
    *
    * This is the same format generated by toCompactString().
+   * <br>
+   * Indices are represented by a dash separated number after the word:
+   * {@code [ate-1 subj>Bill-2 ...}
    */
   public static SemanticGraph valueOf(String s, Language language, Integer sentIndex) {
     return (new SemanticGraphParsingTask(s, language, sentIndex)).parse();
@@ -1841,7 +1844,7 @@ public SemanticGraph makeSoftCopy() {
 
   // ============================================================================
 
-  private static final Pattern WORD_AND_INDEX_PATTERN = Pattern.compile("([^-]+)-([0-9]+)");
+  private static final Pattern WORD_AND_INDEX_PATTERN = Pattern.compile("([^-]*)-([0-9]+)");
 
   /**
    * This nested class is a helper for valueOf(). It represents the task of
@@ -1850,7 +1853,7 @@ public SemanticGraph makeSoftCopy() {
   private static class SemanticGraphParsingTask extends StringParsingTask<SemanticGraph> {
 
     private SemanticGraph sg;
-    private Set<Integer> indexesUsed = Generics.newHashSet();
+    private Map<Integer, IndexedWord> indexesUsed = Generics.newHashMap();
     private final Language language;
     private final Integer sentIndex;
 
@@ -1922,21 +1925,19 @@ private IndexedWord makeVertex(String word) {
       } else {
         index = getNextFreeIndex();
       }
-      indexesUsed.add(index);
-      // Note that, despite the use of indexesUsed and getNextFreeIndex(),
-      // nothing is actually enforcing that no indexes are used twice. This
-      // could occur if some words in the string representation being parsed
-      // come with index markers and some do not.
+      if (indexesUsed.containsKey(index)) {
+        return indexesUsed.get(index);
+      }
       IndexedWord ifl = new IndexedWord(null, sentIndex != null ? sentIndex : 0, index);
       // log.info("SemanticGraphParsingTask>>> word = " + word);
       // log.info("SemanticGraphParsingTask>>> index = " + index);
-      // log.info("SemanticGraphParsingTask>>> indexesUsed = " +
-      // indexesUsed);
+      // log.info("SemanticGraphParsingTask>>> indexesUsed = " + indexesUsed);
       String[] wordAndTag = word.split("/");
       ifl.set(CoreAnnotations.TextAnnotation.class, wordAndTag[0]);
       ifl.set(CoreAnnotations.ValueAnnotation.class, wordAndTag[0]);
       if (wordAndTag.length > 1)
         ifl.set(CoreAnnotations.PartOfSpeechAnnotation.class, wordAndTag[1]);
+      indexesUsed.put(index, ifl);
       return ifl;
     }
 
@@ -1953,7 +1954,7 @@ private static Pair<String, Integer> readWordAndIndex(String word) {
 
     private Integer getNextFreeIndex() {
       int i = 0;
-      while (indexesUsed.contains(i))
+      while (indexesUsed.containsKey(i))
         i++;
       return i;
     }
diff --git a/test/src/edu/stanford/nlp/semgraph/SemanticGraphTest.java b/test/src/edu/stanford/nlp/semgraph/SemanticGraphTest.java
index 3e090aa743..44484b8515 100644
--- a/test/src/edu/stanford/nlp/semgraph/SemanticGraphTest.java
+++ b/test/src/edu/stanford/nlp/semgraph/SemanticGraphTest.java
@@ -347,4 +347,52 @@ public void testValueOfIndices() {
     assertEquals(sg.getParentsWithReln(E, "obj").size(), 1);
     assertEquals(sg.getParentsWithReln(E, "dep").size(), 0);
   }
+
+  /**
+   * Test the vertices and edges if we reuse some indices in valueOf
+   */
+   public void testValueOfReuseIndices() {
+    SemanticGraph sg = SemanticGraph.valueOf("[A/foo-0 obj> B/bar-1 obj> C/foo-2 obj> -2 dep> B/bar-1 nsubj> [D/bar-3 obj> E/baz-4]]");
+
+    List<IndexedWord> words = sg.vertexListSorted();
+    assertEquals(words.size(), 5);
+
+    for (int i = 0; i < 5; ++i) {
+      assertEquals(words.get(i).index(), i);
+    }
+    IndexedWord A = words.get(0);
+    IndexedWord B = words.get(1);
+    IndexedWord C = words.get(2);
+    IndexedWord D = words.get(3);
+    IndexedWord E = words.get(4);
+
+    assertEquals(A.word(), "A");
+    assertEquals(A.tag(),  "foo");
+    assertEquals(B.word(), "B");
+    assertEquals(B.tag(),  "bar");
+    assertEquals(C.word(), "C");
+    assertEquals(C.tag(),  "foo");
+    assertEquals(D.word(), "D");
+    assertEquals(D.tag(),  "bar");
+    assertEquals(E.word(), "E");
+    assertEquals(E.tag(),  "baz");
+
+    assertEquals(sg.getAllEdges(A, B).size(), 2);
+    assertEquals(sg.getParentsWithReln(B, "obj").size(), 1);
+    assertEquals(sg.getParentsWithReln(B, "dep").size(), 1);
+
+    assertEquals(sg.getAllEdges(A, C).size(), 2);
+    assertEquals(sg.getParentsWithReln(C, "obj").size(), 1);
+
+    assertEquals(sg.getAllEdges(A, D).size(), 1);
+    assertEquals(sg.getParentsWithReln(D, "nsubj").size(), 1);
+    assertEquals(sg.getParentsWithReln(D, "obj").size(), 0);
+    assertEquals(sg.getParentsWithReln(D, "dep").size(), 0);
+
+    assertEquals(sg.getAllEdges(A, E).size(), 0);
+    assertEquals(sg.getAllEdges(D, E).size(), 1);
+    assertEquals(sg.getParentsWithReln(E, "obj").size(), 1);
+    assertEquals(sg.getParentsWithReln(E, "dep").size(), 0);
+  }
+
 }