Ramie

ramie

[′rā·mē]

(botany)

Boehmeria nivea. A shrub or half-shrub of the nettle family (Urticaceae) cultivated as a source of a tough, strong, durable, lustrous natural woody fiber resembling flax, obtained from the phloem of the plant; used for high-quality papers and fabrics. Also known as China grass; rhea.

McGraw-Hill Dictionary of Scientific & Technical Terms, 6E, Copyright © 2003 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.

The following article is from The Great Soviet Encyclopedia (1979). It might be outdated or ideologically biased.

Ramie

 

any one of several plants of the genus Boehmeria of the family Urticaceae. The name “ramie” is most often used to designate the species B. nivea. Another ramie species is B. viridis, or B. utilis.

Ramie is a perennial with a powerful root system and erect, cylindrical, nonbranching stems. The plant is usually monoecious, with small, unisexual flowers in multiflorous inflorescences. Native to China, ramie has been cultivated for a long time for its bast, which yields a tough, elastic fiber measuring 62–95 mm in length. The fiber is noted for its fineness, its sheen, and its virtual rot resistance.

Ramie is used in the production of high-quality linens, industrial fabrics, fishnets, and paper (especially for paper money). The world’s principal supplier of ramie is China; other countries of South and East Asia also produce significant quantities of ramie. In the tropics, there are three or more harvests of ramie annually. Outside Asia, ramie is cultivated over relatively small areas in subtropical and tropical regions.

Ramie is a hygrophilous plant that requires fertile soils. The stems cannot tolerate even light frosts, dying at a temperature of - 1 °C. In the USSR the best regions for ramie cultivation are in Transcaucasia and Middle Asia.

REFERENCE

Siniagin, 1.1. Tropicheskoe zemledelie. Moscow, 1968.

M. E. KIRPICHNIKOV

The Great Soviet Encyclopedia, 3rd Edition (1970-1979). © 2010 The Gale Group, Inc. All rights reserved.