I have a giant backlog of posts to write from 2024. Selected photos are sitting in folders labeled things like, “Weld Regrows After Cutting,” “Mice Like Japanese Indigo Seeds,” “Making Lakes,” and “Swamp Milkweed Returns.” Maybe I will write those posts at some point. They’re not exactly time-sensitive updates, more like observations and experiences to share that might be of interest any time to like-minded dye plant growing people.
But meanwhile, I am going to write a short post about unusual woad behavior that I observed in June of this year, which is currently 2025.
I grow woad every year. I just love it. The type of woad I grow and seed-save is Chinese woad. When I bought the seeds from Richters in 2004, it was labeled as Chinese woad, Isatis indigotica.
Then, some while later, I heard about a dispute among botanists regarding the existence of this type of woad. The argument was that it’s not its own species, it’s just a variety of European woad, Isatis tinctoria. So, for a time I stopped referring to it that way, and just called it woad.
However, in the past couple years other people I know who grow woad (hello Molly McLaughlin and Becky Ashenden) have commented that mine doesn’t look like theirs. The plants look quite different and they seem to behave a bit differently, too. I now feel confident that the differences between Isatis indigotica and Isatis tinctoria are significant enough that at the very least they should not be considered “the same.”
I had the chance to compare the two types of woad plants growing side by side at the Fabric of Life dye garden during my workshop last fall. They had already been growing European woad (self-seeding). In the spring of 2024, we planted Chinese woad right next to it for the fall workshop. But I neglected to take a photo of the two side by side, both of which we harvested for our vat that day, because it was raining all day. I didn’t pull out my camera until the very end when there were bright colors to feel happy about (another potential blog post).
Here’s a photo of the self-seeding European woad in the Fabric of Life dyeplant garden in Shelburne, MA this spring. The leaves are dark green, hairy, and a bit sticky to the touch (even when it’s not raining).
In contrast, my woad is a much lighter, chalky shade of green, completely smooth to the touch with no visible hairs. I have posted a great many images of woad on this blog over the years, but here’s one for comparison:
In fact, this image is from a post where I described another unexpected woad behavior. In this earlier post from 2019, I was dismayed that my woad was already bolting in its first year. It was surprising and unexpected to me, but perhaps it’s typical of Chinese woad under certain conditions.
This was illuminated for me thanks to the incredibly informative post by Ashley Walker on Nature’s Rainbow from March 2021 entitled Growing Chinese Woad Isatis indigotica. Their post includes excellent photos, several helpful academic references, descriptions of the way that I. indigotica behaves in their climate, and how it differs from I. tinctoria. It’s a really thorough summary and a very interesting read!
*Edited to add: I don’t regularly have the problem of first year Chinese woad bolting and flowering, which seems to be a bigger issue in the gardens of Nature’s Rainbow. It’s happened to me a few times, but not often enough to be an inconvenience.
This spring I decided not to let the whole bed of woad at Bramble Hill Farm go to seed. I did let them all bloom for the sake of the beautiful color, that sweetly stinky fragrance, and the insects who love the flowers. But then I dug up most of the bed before the seeds matured.
A few days later, I noticed that snake decided to shed its skin in the pile of uprooted plants, which was quite a thrill. It feels like magic is afoot here.
I left a few plants for seed, which I harvested later in June.
OK, so finally we get to the “behavior” part of this post.
One of the plants I cut down to seed-save from was both laden with mature, purplish-black seeds AND growing new flowers lower down the stalk.
The whole stalk:
Close up of the seeds (sorry, not a lot of contrast against the grass):
Little yellow (sweetly stinky) flowers lower down the stalk:
So, in addition to bolting in its first year when exposed to very cold night-time temperatures, Chinese woad can apparently continue to put out new flowers even when the main part of the stalk has already produced mature seed and it’s presumably past the flower-setting stage. So versatile!