What Is Plant Dyeing? From Plants to Fabric

The color of a piece of fabric can come from a plant’s roots, leaves, flower buds, bark or fruit. Madder roots provide red, the flower buds of the pagoda tree provide yellow, and indigo-producing plants are processed to obtain the dye that gives fabric its blue.

Before synthetic dyes became available, plants were an important source of color for textiles. Today, the practice of coloring yarn or fabric with plant-derived dyes is known as plant dyeing.

Understanding it begins with a simple question: where does the color on a piece of fabric come from?

Plant Dyeing Describes the Source of the Dye

Plant dyeing does not describe one particular color or a fixed type of pattern. It identifies where the dye comes from.

“Plant” refers to the dye, not necessarily the fabric being dyed. Plant dyes can therefore be used on silk and wool as well as cotton and linen.

Plant dyeing is also part of the broader category of natural dyeing, but the two are not interchangeable. Natural dyes can come from other sources, including animals. The red dye obtained from cochineal insects, for example, is a natural dye but not a plant dye.

Which Parts of Plants Provide Color?

Different dye plants provide useful coloring substances in different parts. Some are valued for their roots, others for their flowers or the wood inside their trunks.

Examples used in traditional Chinese dyeing include:

• Madder: roots used to produce shades of red.
• Sappanwood: heartwood used to produce reds and other shades, depending on how it is treated.
• Pagoda tree buds: unopened flower buds used as a source of yellow dye.
• Purple gromwell: roots used to produce shades of purple.
• Indigo-producing plants: leaves processed to obtain indigo for blue dyeing.

These materials are not merely names found in old books. Scientific analysis of historical textiles at the China National Silk Museum has identified dyes including madder, pagoda tree buds, purple gromwell and indigo. They helped create the colors we see in surviving textiles.

However, a plant’s visible color does not necessarily tell us what color it will produce on fabric. The result also depends on extraction methods, the fiber being dyed, and the substances and conditions used during dyeing.

How Does Plant Dyeing Work?

Plant dyeing involves more than placing plants and fabric in water and waiting for color to appear. Dyers must prepare their materials and find ways to make the color remain on the fibers.

The first stage is preparing the yarn or fabric. Cleaning and other treatments remove substances that could interfere with dyeing. Different fibers have different properties, so they do not all require the same preparation.

Next comes obtaining the dye. Many plant materials can be soaked or heated to extract their coloring substances, but there is no single recipe that works for every plant.

Many plant dyes also require mordanting. A mordant is a substance that helps a dye bind to a fiber. Alum and iron salts are common examples. Mordants can affect both how well a color remains on the fabric and the shade it produces. The same plant dye can give different results when used with different mordants.

The yarn or fabric is then dyed, rinsed and dried. Repeated dyeing can deepen a color, while successive applications of different dyes can create more complex shades.

Traditional indigo vat dyeing is a useful exception to this general process. Insoluble indigo must first be reduced to a water-soluble form that can enter the fibers. When the fabric leaves the dye bath and is exposed to air, oxidation develops the blue color. This is not simply a matter of boiling plants in blue water, and it does not rely on conventional mordanting to produce its color.

Plant Dyeing in Chinese History

The use of plant dyes in China long predates modern synthetic dyes.

Research presented by the China National Silk Museum traces the use of madder for red dyeing back to the Spring and Autumn period. During the Ming dynasty, the Bencao Gangmu, also known as the Compendium of Materia Medica, recorded various dye plants and their uses. The Tiangong Kaiwu described dyes and dyeing methods.

These records reveal more than a few colors discovered by chance. They document knowledge of materials and processes accumulated over generations.

The history of plant dyeing also includes exchanges of materials and techniques. Dyers used local plants while adopting new ingredients and methods introduced from elsewhere.

Some dyes and dyeing techniques used in China reached Japan long ago. Tadeai, a plant used to produce indigo, had reached Japan via China and the Korean Peninsula by the Asuka period, roughly the sixth century to the beginning of the eighth century. Japan subsequently developed these materials and techniques further in relation to its own clothing and aesthetics.

A related term commonly used in Japan is kusakizome, written 草木染. According to the Yamazaki family’s records, the writer Akira Yamazaki introduced this name in 1929 to distinguish traditional natural dyeing from dyeing with synthetic dyes, and promoted it through an exhibition in 1930. The history of the name should not be confused with the history of the craft: its modern naming and promotion in Japan do not mean that plant dyeing itself was invented there at that time.

Plant Dyeing, Indigo Dyeing and Tie-Dye Describe Different Things

These terms can all apply to the same piece of fabric because they describe different aspects of its production.

Plant dyeing identifies the source of the dye.

Indigo dyeing identifies the dye being used and the process through which it produces blue. When the indigo comes from plants, it is also plant dyeing. When synthetic indigo is used, the fabric cannot be described as plant-dyed simply because it looks blue.

Tie-dye describes how a pattern is formed. Tying, stitching and gathering restrict the dye’s access to parts of the fabric, leaving patterns and variations in color when the bindings are removed. Tie-dye can use either plant-derived or synthetic dyes.

A piece of fabric patterned through tying and dyed with plant-derived indigo can therefore be described as plant-dyed, indigo-dyed and tie-dyed. The terms do not conflict; they describe the same textile from different perspectives.

Plant-Dyed Colors Are Not Always Muted

Plant-dyed textiles are often presented today in soft yellows, dusty pinks and earthy browns. But plant dyeing is not limited to pale or muted colors. Traditional plant dyes can also produce vivid reds, yellows, blues and purples.

The depth and intensity of a color depend on the materials, recipe and dyeing process.

Natural origins do not mean that a color will never change, either. Different dyes respond differently to light and washing, so plant-dyed textiles should not all be treated as if they were the same material. Research at the China National Silk Museum has examined the different fading behavior of several plant dyes under light exposure.

What makes plant dyeing interesting is not simply the appearance of a “natural color.” It is the relationship between specific materials and techniques: which plant was used, which part was taken, how it was processed, and which fiber received the color.

Seen this way, a plant-dyed textile is also a record of materials and craftsmanship. Its color connects the fabric to plants, places and generations of accumulated knowledge.

References

1. Cambridge University Botanic Garden — Dyes from Plants. An introduction to dye plants, natural dye sources and mordants.
2. China National Silk Museum — Dye Sources in Textiles from the Fifth to Fourteenth Centuries. Scientific identification of dyes in historical textiles.
3. American Chemical Society, Journal of Chemical Education — Colors to Dye for: Preparation of Natural Dyes. Plant dye extraction and the role of mordants.
4. Victoria and Albert Museum — Natural Dyeing: A Heritage of Colour. An overview of dyeing processes, including mordant and indigo vat dyeing.
5. China National Silk Museum — Red Dyes Recorded in the Bencao Gangmu. Historical information on madder, sappanwood and other red dyes.
6. China National Silk Museum — A Colorful Map: Three Hundred Years of Eurasian Textile Dye History. Dye materials, historical recipes and exchanges between regions.
7. Nara National Museum — Indigo: Shōsō-in Exhibition Glossary. The introduction of tadeai through China and the Korean Peninsula and its use in Japan.
8. Kusaki Kobo — The Yamazaki Family and Kusakizome. The family’s account of Akira Yamazaki’s naming and promotion of kusakizome in 1929–1930.
9. China National Silk Museum — Research on the Effects of Museum Lighting on Plant Dyes. Research into light-induced fading in different plant dyes.