The medicinal part of Rubia tinctorum is the dried root. The small yellowishgreen flowers are in loose, leafy, long-peduncled terminal or auxiliary cymes. The margin of the calyx is indistinct, 4- to 5-sectioned and has a tip that is curved inward. There are five stamens and an inferior ovary. The fruit is a black, pea-sized glabrous, smooth drupe containing two seeds. The perennial pl...