The Heritage of Plants in Tobago
The Indigo Project exhibition opens at the Scarborough Library on Monday July 15. It starts as a fascinating modern expedition, in search of the seventeenth and eighteenth century indigo production sites and plantations around Tobago, delves into the island’s history as it passed from British to French to Courlanders, and leads back to the wild diversity and the botanicals in the rainforest. Go to the Scarborough Library July 15-27; and visit the Tobago Library Services on their Facebook page. The blue dye for blue jeans came originally from indigo, the extract of a particular family of plants, the indigofera. The name comes from the place where the dye was first recorded in use, India. The Greek word for the dye, indikón - means Indian. The Romans called it indicum. It eventually came into English as the word “indigo.” (It is worth noting that the identical dye was developed in Britain – woad is the colour that early wild Britons used to colour their skin - f...