page_title: Fabaceae
section_title: Dyes
hierarchical_section_title: Fabaceae / Economic and cultural importance / Dyes
caption_attribution_description: English: Extract of Indigo plant applied to paper
context_page_description: The Fabaceae or Leguminosae, commonly known as the legume, pea, or bean family, are a large and economically important family of flowering plants. It includes trees, shrubs, and perennial or annual herbaceous plants, which are easily recognized by their fruit and their compound, stipulate leaves. Many legumes have characteristic flowers and fruits. The family is widely distributed, and is the third-largest land plant family in number of species, behind only the Orchidaceae and Asteraceae, with about 751 genera and about 19,000 known species. The five largest of the genera are Astragalus, Acacia, Indigofera, Crotalaria, and Mimosa, which constitute about a quarter of all legume species. The ca. 19,000 known legume species amount to about 7% of flowering plant species. Fabaceae is the most common family found in tropical rainforests and in dry forests in the Americas and Africa.
  Recent molecular and morphological evidence supports the fact that the Fabaceae is a single monophyletic family.
context_section_description: The species used to produce dyes include the following: Logwood Haematoxylon campechianum; a large spiny tree that can grow up to 15 m tall. Its cork is thin and soft and its wood is hard. The heartwood is used to produce dyes that are red and purple. The histological stain called haematoxylin is produced from this species. Brazilwood tree (Caesalpinia echinata) is similar to the previous tree but smaller and with red or purple flowers. The wood is also used to produce a red or purple dye. The Madras thorn (Pithecellobium dulce) is another spiny tree native to Latin America, it grows up to 4 m high and has yellow or green flowers that grow in florets. Its fruit is reddish and is used to produce a yellow dye. Indigo dye is extracted from the True indigo plant Indigofera tinctoria that is native to Asia. In Central and South America dyes are produced from two related species: indigo from Indigofera suffruticosa and Natal indigo from Indigofera arrecta. A yellow dye is extracted from Butea monosperma, commonly called as flame of the forest.
caption: Indigo colorant
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