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Woad is a flowering plant in the mustard family (Brassicaceae)
There is a source of blue dye. That is extracted from its leaves.
The dye produced is similar to whats produced in the indigofera species
Though woad has a lower concentration.
Woad is native to the steppes, and desert margins of the Caucasus; central Asia, through western Asia; and, eastern Siberia
Over millennia it spread west into Europe. Today it occurs in southeastern and central Europe; and, parts of North America, where it’s invasive.
Woad seeds dating to the neolithic period have been found in southern France.
Humans selected for traits that made the dye crop useful: High leaf biomass (more plant material to extract pigment); Indigo precursor compounds (leaves that ferment to the blue dye); & Where robust growth locally in textile industry climates.
Unlike food crops, selection was not driven by yield of edible parts, but by dye yield and plant vigor.
Check it out with some more neolithic architecture today.
Bibliography: Speranza, Jasmine & Miceli, Natalizia & Taviano, Maria & Ragusa, Salvatore & Kwiecień, Inga & Szopa, Agnieszka & Ekiert, Halina. (2020). Isatis tinctoria L. (Woad): A Review of Its Botany, Ethnobotanical Uses, Phytochemistry, Biological Activities, and Biotechnological Studies. Plants. 9. 298. 10.3390/plants9030298.
ipm.ucanr.edu Dyer’s Woad Management Guidelines–UC IPM
Zohary, Daniel, Maria Hopf, and Ehud Weiss, Domestication of Plants in the Old World: The origin and spread of domesticated plants in Southwest Asia, Europe, and the Mediterranean Basin, 4th edn (Oxford, 2012; online edn, Oxford Academic, 8 May 2015), https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:osobl/9780199549061.001.0001
D G Schreber, Historische, physische und economische Beschreibung des Waidtes, 1752, the appendix; Thorpe JF and Ingold CK, 1923, Synthetic colouring matters – vat colours (London: Longmans, Green)
USDA information on Isatis tinctoria (https://plants.usda.gov/home/plantProfile?symbol=ISTI)
All About Woad > Buy woad – THE blue natural dye & learn how to dye with woad & grow & extract the pigment Webpage
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