Plant · P-944

Woad

Isatis tinctoria

Woad is a biennial to short-lived perennial grown for its leaves, which yield a blue dye by a lengthy fermentation process and were Europe's principal indigo source before tropical Indigofera species reached its markets. Native to central and southern Europe and temperate Asia, it wants full sun to light shade and moist, well-drained soil across a wide range of textures and pH. It self-sows freely from abundant seed, and several regions of the western United States regulate it as a noxious weed with actual sale or possession restrictions because of how readily it naturalises into open rangeland.