View source for Isatis

{{SPlantbox
|familia=Brassicaceae
|genus=Isatis
|cultivar=L.
|Temp Metric=°F
|jumpin=If this plant info box on watering; zones; height; etc. is mostly empty you can click on the edit tab and fill in the blanks!
|image=Isatis tinctoria02.JPG
|image_width=240
|image_caption=Isatis tinctoria
}}
'''''Isatis''''' ([[Syllable stress of Botanical Latin|''Í-sa-tis'']]) is a genus of about 30 species of [[flowering plant]]s in the family [[Brassicaceae]], native to the [[Mediterranean]] region east to central [[Asia]]. The genus includes [[woad]] (''Isatis tinctoria'').

{{Inc|
Isatis (ancient name, of obscure meaning). Cruciferae. 'Herbs, for ornament and for dyeing.

Annual, biennial, perennial; erect, branching, glabrous or pubescent or rarely tomentose: lvs. undivided, the upper ones clasping and auricled: fls. small, yellow, many in lax racemes, without bracts; sepals and petals 4: pod large and mostly flat, pendulous, linear to oblong or obovate or even nearly circular, indehiscent, strong-ribbed on either side, 1-seeded, the stigma sessile; radicle mostly incumbent.—Species about 50, Eu., N. Afr.. Asia.

This genus includes the dyer's woad, I. tinctoria formerly cultivated for a blue dye but no longer advertised. Caesar relates that the ancient Britons used the wood for staining their bodies, and the word Britain itself comes from an old Celtic word meaning painted. Before indigo became common in Europe, the dyer's woad produced the chief blue coloring matter for woolen cloth. The introduction of indigo in the seventeenth century destroyed this important industry, not without
opposition. Dioscorides and Pliny mention both the dyer's woad and indigo.

I. boissieridna Reichb. Annual, 12 in.: basal lvs. cuncate- oblong, toothed; upper lvs. entire, oblong: fls. yellow: pod pubescent, various. Turkestan.
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Isatis is the ancient name of Yazd , a city in Iran.