Dyer's Madder

Rubia tinctorum  Days to Maturity: 3rd Season for Dye from Roots Madder is a perennial natural dye plant famous for the gorgeous red color its roots produce. A member of the coffee family, it was the main source of red across old Europe, Asia and northern Africa in fine textiles and pigments. Today it is still a mainstay for natural dyers. The color purple can also be produced by combining madder with indigo.  Now for some fascinating and devastating history-- The color red has commonly been associated with power, fertility, protection and immortality. A red natural dye is hard to come by, but also can be extracted from scale insects called kermes, including cochineal that live on the prickly pear cactus. Diné and Pueblo artisans have been using cochineal for red in textiles, rugs, blankets, clothing and pottery for at least many centuries. When Hernán Cortés and his conquistadors arrived in present-day Mexico in 1519, red-thirsty Spanish elites descended upon the cochineal used by A