Woad - The Mysterious Blue Plant Dye

Woad is paramount as the source of the blue dye that has been used to dye wool and other fibres for some thousand years in Europe and the Middle East. The pigment is extracted from the dark blue-green, spinach-like woad leaves.

The Woad Plant

Woad (Isatis tinctoria) is a native of the Mediterranean and belongs to the house Cruciferae, more ordinarily known as the brassicas, and is intimately related to broccoli, cabbage and rape seed. Woad grows readily and is determined a noxious weed in some states of the Usa.

Woad is a biennial plant and grows for two years before dying down. In the first year, it forms a low-growing cluster of leaves like spinach. The leaves are harvested for dye output in the first year only, because they have minuscule or no colour when they reach the second year. 

In the second year, the leaves become longer and thinner and the woad plant looks quite different. It produces tall stems up to five or six feet in height with sprays of small, neon yellow flowers. The flowers, which apPear in May, have a marvelous fragrance and attract abundance of bees. The black seeds that follow are winged, resembling small tongues and after producing seeds, the plant dies down.

Woad Blues

Dyeing with woad is very exciting. Wool or fabric is dipped into the vat, left for a few minutes, and then removed. At first the wool is pale yellow, but with exposure to Air, the colour slowly turns to green and then to blue. This change in colour never ceases to fascinate viewers.

Woad is also very economical; 10 grams of woad pigment, for example, dyes more than 200 grams of wool a beautiful medium blue, and at least someone else 100 grams of wool a light blue. 

Traditionally a fermentation vat was used to dye with woad, often started with stale urine. The fermentation removes the oxygen from the vat manufacture the woad pigment soluble. Nowadays, chemicals such as spectralite are usually used to take off the oxygen from the vat.

Woad and the antique Brits

Woad is native to the Mediterranean, originating in Turkey and the Middle East, from where it spread into Europe and has been in use as a dye plant since the Neolithic, 5 to 10,000 years ago. 

Many habitancy have heard that when Julius Caesar's army invaded Britain in 55 Bc, the Romans saw Picts painted blue with woad. There is a great deal of controversy regarding this statement, as it is unlikely that the Roman army, which was generally in the south, ever came over any Picts, who lived in the north of Scotland. Further, woad is difficult to use as body paint and not favorable for tattoos.

Woad as an anti-cancer agent

It is not only a blue dye that can be extracted from woad; the woad plant has also become a weapon in the fight against breast cancer. Modern study has found that this plant has 20 times more of the anti-cancer chemical glucobrassicin than broccoli. It is difficult to citation the chemical from broccoli, so woad provides an effective alternative. Woad can furnish even more of this chemical if the young leaves are damaged. Do not try to eat woad though as this plant is not edible.

Wearing woad

Have your heard the Woad Song? The last stanza goes like this;

March on Snowdon with your woad on,

Never mind if you get rained or snowed on

Never want a button sewed on.

Go it antique Britons! 

Today there is adequate data available on the internet to allow you to grow your own woad, citation the blue pigment, dye some local wool and knit a blue scarf to wear when you are next climbing Snowdon (or your local mountain Peak)!

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