Dyer’s Broom 🌼🎨🧑‍🎨

The dyer’s greenweed

Dyer’s Broom (Genista tinctoria, Fabaceae family) is a small shrub with vibrant golden-yellow flowers 🌼. Its name “tinctoria” comes from the yellow color, as since Roman times, a dye was extracted from its flowering stems and used to color fabrics such as wool, linen, and cotton.
Dyer’s Broom grows wild in grassy areas, often on hilly or mountainous terrains. The flowers form in clusters and appear in summer, attracting pollinators like bees and butterflies 🐝🦋. The fruits are pods 🫛 about 2-3 cm long, containing dark green seeds.
Today, the plant is mainly used for ornamental purposes or to reforest degraded land.
⁉️ Did you know? 😲
In the 14th century, Flemish dyers were pioneers in using this plant to dye fabrics green 🎨. They would first immerse the fabric in the yellow dye and then in a blue bath obtained from Isatis tinctoria. This process produced the famous “Kendal Green” (named after the English town) and “Lincoln Green,” renowned as the color of Robin Hood’s tunic 🏹.
Photo Pixabay