Rubia tinctorum

Scientific Name (Genus/Species): Rubia tinctorum

Family: (Rubiaceae)

(P) to 2′. Dyer’s Madder. East Mediterranean to Central Asia. The roots of this plant have been used since ancient times as a red dye for leather, wool, cotton and silk. Early evidence of dyeing comes from India where a piece of cotton dyed with madder has been recovered from the archaeological site at Mohenjo-daro (3rd millennium BCE). The red coats of the British Redcoats were dyed with madder, after earlier being dyed with cochineal. The foliage resembles sweet woodruff or bedstraw with whorled lanceolate leaves that are leathery, rough and prickly. The mostly five-petalled flowers are tiny in loose, many branched, leafy cymes, yellow-green to honey coloured. Round, shiny black, berry-like fruit follow. Summer flowering. Sun. 3 & T1