In the sunrise light — at 5:25 — the white flowers look yellow. Why are white flowers called "indigo"? The scientific name is Baptisia lactea — and "Baptisia" is based on the Greek word for "dye." I'm a little confused about whether the wild indigo with white flowers was used to make dye. I think the answer is yes, because the dye is made from the leaves. Here are some instructions, and, by the way, a major ingredient is urine.
This was my best sunrise picture. Today was a Type #3 sunrise — completely clear sky — and the sun had already crossed the shoreline when I reached my vantage point. It doesn't work to aim the camera right at the unclouded sun. You have to get your picture when the sun first peeks over the line or point your camera at something else.
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Wild Indigo was the name of my band in High School. We were an all male cover band of the Indigo Girls. For whatever reason we were never able to land any gigs.
...and, by the way, a major ingredient is urine.
Ninety percent of everything is urine.
We need to tear down every Lincoln statue. He never should have freed those people.
Thayer went to a tiny island in the Caribbean many years ago, where indigo plantations had grown previously. There, Indigofera suffruticosa grew wild all over the island, even in cracks in the cement. She did some dyeing with it, and the local people were amazed; although they’d lived with the plant, they’d never seen it used.
What would people do without white women coming in and showing them how to do things that they thought modern technology had removed the need for?
The scientific name is Baptisia lactea — and "Baptisia" is based on the Greek word for "dye."
The Greek word for dye is βαφή while the Greek root word βαπτισ -- which resembles our "baptism." I don';t think the two are related. I think there's more to the story behind the name.
More fun with Greek:
Long ago, the Romans named the galaxy “via lactea,” which translates to “road of milk.” The Romans named it via lactea precisely because it looks like a milky patch of sky above the Earth at night. ... The Romans got the name from the Greeks, who called it galaxias kyklos, which translates into “milky circle.” link
So our word "galaxy" is related to the Greek word for milk. This word shows up in numerous chemical terms like galactose.
my name is Indigo Montoya
you killed my father
now prepare to dye
I think the answer is yes, because the dye is made from the leaves. Here are some instructions, and, by the way, a major ingredient is urine.
Here is a home recipe for making elemental phosphorus from urine: link.
Yep, photography is all about contrasts. Nice photo.
chickelit:
Not to mansplain or scholarsplain or anything, but actually βαφή 'dye' and βαπτίζω are etymologically related. The latter only means 'baptize' in Christian Latin: the basic meaning is to dip anything into any kind of liquid. So it can mean 'drown' (transitive) or 'wash' literally, or 'wash' metaphorically, as in washing away sins, or (if the liquid you're dipping something into is full of pigment) 'dye'.
By the way, lots of words change meanings or acquire new meanings in Christian and Jewish Greek/Latin, e.g. an 'angelos' is any messenger in pagan Greek, a messenger from God for Christians, a 'martys' (plural 'martyres') is a witness of any kind in pagan Greek, a person who bears witness to his/her faith by dying for it in Christian Greek, and a 'synagoge' is any gathering together of people in pagan Greek, a building built for religious people to gather and have ceremonies in in Jewish Greek, and so on.
@Althouse, now every time you see clothing in navy blue you are going to think of urine.
No. This is the wrong species. The dye plant is Baptisia australis which has a common name of blue false indigo. Real indigo is a completely different plant and not native to North America as is B. australis.. Baptisia will make a bluish dye from the sap and roots that is better than no blue dye at all.
It grows like crazy here in the lowcountry. There's a history of three different species but I'm told only one is still used to make indigo dye
Of course indigo is now a symbol of white oppression because of the history of slaves working the indigo plantations.
chickelit: "Baptism" makes sense as the root of the word dye. Haveing done a ton of fiber art in the past, including dyeing - it is a kind of baptism to dunk plain fiber in water with dye - giving it new life as a colorful fiber once removed.
The urine thing: in Roman days there were public urinals to collect it for the manufacture of fiber, clothing, etc. Fabric history is fascinating. It the 1400s 1500s or so it was illegal in some countries for non-royalty to wear certain colors, red and purple being the main ones. It was difficult and expensive to make both colors. Purple came from the secretion of a sea snail and other marine creatures; the Spanish conquest of South America introduced a deeper red via an insect found in that region, although the red of the British Army came from a lichen found on rocks in the area. Dull browns can be had all day long - and that was what the poor clothed themselves with.
PS australis doesn’t mean Australia just southern.
"No. This is the wrong species. The dye plant is Baptisia australis which has a common name of blue false indigo. Real indigo is a completely different plant and not native to North America as is B. australis.. Baptisia will make a bluish dye from the sap and roots that is better than no blue dye at all."
I saw the info on Baptisia australis, but I still don't think I saw the exclusion of Baptisia lactea (or Baptisia alba) from use as dye. I looked at a lot of websites and saw some confusing things. The answer cannot be inferred from the color of the flowers, because the dye is made from the leaves.
Baptisia means the same thing as false indigo, so the thing in my picture is also false indigo.
There's also Baptisia tinctoria, which is yellow wild indigo, and I am seeing that that is used as dye: "Used by early Americans as a substitute, albeit an inferior one, for true indigo (genus Indigofera) in making dyes." http://www.missouribotanicalgarden.org/PlantFinder/PlantFinderDetails.aspx?kempercode=j500
Napoleon was complaining about the cost of indigo for Grand Arme blue uniforms after Austerlitz. They had to get it from England, now that Nelson had destroyed the French fleet at Trafalgar.
In the middle of the afternoon on Sunday, I was feeling out of sorts and asking myself why, when I realized it was because I hadn't visited here yet.
When I scrolled down quickly, I saw a giraffe in the image.
"Clear something up for me Gladys: Is he a giraffe?"
@Dr. Weevil & ALP: Many thanks for the clarifications! I am a Greek language neophyte. Words which took on new meanings on going from classical to Christian to neo- Greek are tricky for me.
The rioters set the AFL-CIO building in D.C. on fire.
In response, the AFL-CIO has put up a big banner on its building saying, "Black Lives Matter."
The Ingigos ate my baby!
Dang. This makes me realize that the cream wild indigo plants I planted last year (baptisia bracteata) are probably not going to bloom this year.
My baptisia are still scrawny little things. At least they came back this year.
https://chidesignindigo.com/blog
Carloine was the artist in residence in my community for a week. Some more info on process...
“I saw the info on Baptisia australis, but I still don't think I saw the exclusion of Baptisia lactea (or Baptisia alba) from use as dye. I looked at a lot of websites and saw some confusing things. The answer cannot be inferred from the color of the flowers, because the dye is made from the leaves.”
Baptisia means the same thing as false indigo, so the thing in my picture is also false indigo.
There's also Baptisia tinctoria, which is yellow wild indigo, and I am seeing that that is used as dye...”
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Yes, common names are a tricky thing to use. B. tinctoria was also used to some extent. I could find no mention anywhere of other than the two Baptisia above being used as a dye nor their leaves being used for dye. The leaves of true indigo plant or Indigofera tinctoria are used for the best blue dye.
Oh, by the way Ann, given your interest in things sartorial, you might like the spin-off podcast of 99% Invisible. The podcast is called "Articles of Interest" and its creator is Avery Trufelman, who has an awesome name and a fantastic voice. I love listening to her talk. I bring it up because podcast #5 was on jeans, and she narrates making indigo dye with someone in their back yard.
https://99percentinvisible.org/aoi/
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