What to wear to keep cool in summer? Of course, it's the "shroud"!

Flax (Linum usitatissimum) is a herbaceous plant of the genus Linum in the family Linaceae. Flax is an annual plant with an amazing growth rate. Planted in March or April every year, after a hundred days of growth, the flax plants can quickly grow to a height of one meter.

June is the flowering period of flax. In my eyes, flax is not only an economic crop, but also an ornamental plant with high value. It has sky-blue flowers, graceful stems, and slender leaves. If you are lucky enough to see a flax field in bloom, the sea of ​​flowers that is like the reflection of the sky will definitely make you unforgettable. Other species of the genus Linum have white, yellow or red flowers.

Wang Zengqi described the flax fields in his novel as follows: "Sesame is like a small blue umbrella, delicate and elegant, not like a crop, but more like a flower grown for viewing." The sesame here is not sesame, but flax | Johan Neven / Flickr

Have you ever worn the cloth used to wrap a mummy?

Flax is one of the earliest crops cultivated by humans. There is no consensus in academia about the origin of flax, but the mainstream view is that flax originated in the Caucasus (now Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan). Today, flax is widely grown around the world as an economic crop. Canada is currently the largest producer of fiber flax. Flax was born in West Asia, domesticated and cultivated in the Fertile Crescent, and then spread all over the world with the footprints of human civilization.

Early humans planted flax mainly for weaving and making clothing. Flax fiber is a unique brown-gray color, like the mane of a horse, and is called "flax color" in the hairdressing industry. High-quality flax fiber is fine and soft, and the clothes made from it are dry and breathable, making them very suitable for wearing in summer. Coarser flax fibers can be made into ropes, canvas, etc.

Tony's familiar "flax color" in the barber shop | Brentano / Flickr

Flax witnessed the rise of early human civilization. According to archaeological discoveries, some knotted and dyed flax fibers were found in the Dzudzuana Cave in Georgia. The age is estimated to be 30,000 years ago in the Paleolithic Age. This is the earliest textile discovered by humans so far. It is said that these fibers were probably used to bind stone tools. Around 8000 BC, people began to cultivate flax in the Tigris and Euphrates River basins.

During the Pharaoh era in 3000 BC, flax was widely planted in the Nile Valley of ancient Egypt. Paintings of flax flowers can still be found on the walls of temples, and reliefs also depict scenes of flax harvesting. At that time, flax also had religious symbolic significance. Egyptian priests only wore linen clothes, symbolizing purity and light. Because it was very soft and comfortable, flax was called "fabric woven with moonlight" by the ancient Egyptians. The Egyptians used linen cloth to wrap mummies, also known as shrouds. The ancient Egyptians believed that this practice would make the soul immortal.

Bag made of linen fabric, made in Egypt in the 12th century | Osama Shukir Muhammed Amin FRCP (Glasg) / Wikimedia Commons

Later, the most successful merchants in ancient times, the Phoenicians on the eastern coast of the Mediterranean, imported linen from Egypt and sold it to Greece and Rome through advanced navigation technology, allowing Europeans to come into contact with and fall in love with this comfortable cloth. The Phoenicians were very business-minded and knew how to use rare murex dyes to dye plain linen with a noble purple color and sell it for a better price (Calendar Girl: What is "murex purple"? Click here to review).

Later, the Roman Empire began to grow this crop in its own territory. After the fall of the Western Roman Empire, the French took over and improved it, which led to the prosperity of flax planting and processing industries in France during the Middle Ages. Flanders in western France became the center of the European flax industry. In the Edo period, Japan introduced flax as a medicinal plant for cultivation. In the early Meiji period, flax began to be widely cultivated and produced as a fiber crop in the cool Hokkaido.

Linen mills in Northern Ireland, 1897 | National Library of Ireland on The Commons / Wikimedia Commons

In the 19th century, Europeans took the lead in using machines to produce cotton, a cheaper and more elastic fiber crop, and the scale of the flax industry began to decline. It was not until after World War II that people turned their attention to flax again, but at this time, flax was no longer just a fiber crop, but an economic crop that contributed to various fields.

In addition to textiles, you can also eat

Flax has also made important contributions to linguistics. The English word for linen fabric, Linen, comes from the Latin name Linum. The word Line (linen) that everyone is most familiar with comes from this word and is closely related to the long fibers of flax. The word linoleum, a commonly used bed material for decoration, comes from the Latin linum (flax) and oleum (oil). This bed material is made of linseed oil, linen and cork. In addition, lingerie comes from the French word Linge, which means linen. The earliest underwear was woven from flax fibers with good breathability and good skin-friendly feel. To this day, most of the bedding in high-end hotels is still made of linen.

Flax, linen cloth and a half-processed flax stem | Joep Vogels / Wikimedia Commons

How does flax become industrial-grade flax fiber? It takes several steps. Every July, the flax turns golden yellow, which is the flax harvest season. In order to ensure the length and continuity of the fiber, the flax is not harvested in the traditional way, but is pulled up by the roots by machines. This process is called "pulling flax" in agricultural production.

In the cartoon "The Mole's Story", the little mole pulls out the mature flax stalks to prepare for making linen | "The Mole's Story"

The slender and flexible flax is rubbed and beaten in a flax pulling machine to remove the flax dust, and then neatly stacked on the ground and exposed to the abundant sunlight for drying. This process is called "drying flax". The seed pods are also beaten off during the drying process, which has another use.

After the sun drying, the next step is the most critical retting. Flax needs to go through repeated soaking, fermentation, rinsing, sun exposure and air drying. The fermentation process separates the pectin and cellulose in the flax. This process is very dependent on time and temperature, and has a great impact on the quality of flax fiber. Only experienced flax farmers can grasp the right timing for each step.

Frog soaking flax in pond | The Mole's Tale

Flax can be used not only as a raw material for textiles, but also as food. Flax seeds harvested from flax capsules can be squeezed and extracted to produce flaxseed oil (linseed oil), an edible oil with an amber luster. Flaxseed oil is rich in unsaturated fatty acids, including α-linolenic acid and ω-3 fatty acids. Flax seeds also have a unique oily aroma. When mixed with flour and kneaded and baked into bread or other wheat products, the aroma is fragrant. In northern India, flax seeds are also roasted and ground into powder for making spicy curry.

Hummus with flax seeds | Pixabay

In addition to food, linseed oil can also be used as an adhesive for paints, oil paints and wood products. When I visited the Singapore Botanic Gardens, I also saw an exhibition hall whose exterior walls were made of pure flax fiber, which was extremely strong.

The names of the two are not necessarily the same family.

In addition to flax, there are many other plants called "hemp" that can be used to produce textiles. Well, do you recognize them all?

Ramie

Scientific Name: Boehmeria nivea

English name: Ramie

Urticaceae, Ramie

Ramie is native to East Asia and is a perennial herb with dense short, rough hairs that are not prickly. my country has a long history of cultivating ramie for clothing fiber. As early as the Shang Dynasty, ramie was planted as a fiber crop. Currently, China is the largest exporter of ramie.

After degumming and refining, ramie becomes white fiber with a silky luster. Clothes made of ramie fiber are dry and breathable. However, the disadvantage of ramie is that it is not strong enough and has low elasticity. It is easy to wrinkle or even break when folded repeatedly. It will become hard when immersed in water, so ramie fiber is often blended with wool.

Ramie

Scientific Name: Abutilon theophrasti

English name: Velvetleaf

Malvaceae, Abutilon

An annual herb native to South Asia, it has also been cultivated in China for a long time. It has small yellow flowers and a very peculiar seed shape, with more than a dozen petals arranged in a wheel shape, each with sharp thorns. Ramie fiber is white and shiny, and its quality is not as good as flax, so it is generally used to make ropes, sacks, etc. The seeds can be used to extract oil for industrial use.

jute

Scientific Name: Corchorus capsularis

English name: Jute

Tiliaceae, Jute

Jute is an annual upright woody herb native to tropical Asia. It is the world's second largest natural plant fiber in terms of production and consumption after cotton. Its main production areas are India and Bangladesh, and it is also cultivated on a large scale in my country. Jute fibers can be up to 4 meters long and are golden yellow. Like flax and ramie, jute fibers are taken from the phloem. Jute fibers are rough and not suitable for textiles. However, as one of the cheapest plant fibers, jute fibers are often used in agricultural and flood control sacks. They have good waterproof properties. In addition, jute fibers are also used in papermaking and ropes.

Kenaf

Scientific Name: Hibiscus cannabinus

English name: Kenaf

Malvaceae, Hibiscus

Kenaf, also known as hemp hibiscus, is native to India. Although it is only one letter different from hemp and its leaves are also very similar to hemp, they are two completely different species and do not contain any drug-making ingredients. Kenaf is a perennial herb with sharp thorns all over the plant. Although it is a bit difficult to process, its bast fiber is flexible and elastic, and is often used as a substitute for jute to make sacks, canvas and ropes.

marijuana

Scientific Name: Cannabis sativa

English name: Hemp

Cannabis, Cannabis

Marijuana is notorious for containing tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), which can be used to make drugs. In fact, it is a good plant fiber, okay? The phloem fiber of the hemp stem is very flexible and is widely used as a raw material for clothing, ropes, etc. It is also widely grown in Yunnan, my country. By the way, you should also know that the hemp used for drugs and the industrial hemp used for fiber are not the same subspecies. The content of tetrahydrocannabinol in industrial hemp is very low and cannot be used to make drugs.

Manila Hemp

Scientific Name: Musa textilis

English name: Abaca

Musaceae, Musa

Manila hemp is native to the Philippines, Borneo and Sumatra. Manila hemp is a perennial herb (yes, from a botanical perspective, bananas are also a kind of grass) that looks like a banana tree and has a fruit that looks like a banana (Calendar Girl: Manila hemp fruit cannot be eaten because it contains a lot of seeds. I know you all care about this). The biggest difference from the previous types of hemp fibers is that their fibers come from the veins and petioles, not the phloem of the stem. Manila hemp fibers are mainly used for papermaking, fiber ropes, etc.

Author: Attack of the flesh

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