Reseda lutea (yellow mignonette)
A bright yellow dye for knight's robes and for dresses
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Yellow mignonette produces a bright yellow dye that was highly valued as early as Roman times. Textiles in warrior graves from the migration and Viking age in the Nordic countries indicate that they had cloaks on which yellow decorations were dyed with mignonette. Reseda was cultivated early in Norway as well, with pollen of a reseda species found in deposits in Veisan from around the year 1000, and seeds have been found in deposits in the old Viking town of Jorvík (in present-day York in England).
In recent times (from the 18th century), Reseda has been cultivated as an ornamental plant, and is today found naturalised on roadsides and waste land from the Oslo area along the coast to Kristiansund.
Return to Bergen's plants.