I just read in this book that tree of heaven (Ailanthus sp) is the host for a type of silkworm that makes fiber that is less glossy than silk, but much more durable.
That’s a type of natural fiber I’ve never heard of before! And it sounds like a pretty fantastic way to reduce our dependence on cotton (which isn’t the easiest or most enviromentally sustainable crop to grow). I find that I agree with the book: if we start feeding ailanthus silkmoths (Samia cynthia) on leaves from trees of heaven that are already in an ecosystem, we can make excellent cloth and control an invasive species. What a great idea!
That makes me wonder: how many other nifty plant fibers are out there that might be largely ignored and would be valuable to know about?
Here are a few simple thoughts I have right now.
Flax is a very drought tolerant food crop that also grows fiber.
So is yucca. The leaves can be used to make strong thread that can be used to weave strong cloth.
Silk would be easily attainable for someone who has mulberry trees in their yard (or growing wild in their ecosystem) and doesn’t mind keeping a population of silkworms that they regularly feed with leaves. (Silkworms might also be an interesting option as a livestock population for a small space.)
Can you think of any other interesting options? This seems like a subject well worth discussing. Fiber is an interesting yield we food gardeners often ignore, and if it can even come as a bonus from the same plants we’re growing for food . . . neato!
Imho in this topic Nettles are greatly underrated.
Interesting thing about flax seeds is it’s one of best sources of omega 3. Most plants provide too much omega 6 to be useful as source of omega 3. (ratio is important)
Common milkweed, stinging nettle, and dogbane all make excellent fiber for cordage and cloth. Indigenous peoples used them extensively. Stinging nettle is also a delicious early spring cooked green and it improves the soil.
Nettles are related to ramie, also a fiber crop. Along with food, I am looking into plants that make paper. These are generally the same as fibers we can use for clothes. Agave, sisal and sotol are also used as fiber crops and are often too strong to process for papermaking. Where I live in S Texas, I have used lantana (invasive woody type), maypop (the stinky version of passionfruit (passiflora foetida) to make beautiful warm brown paper, flax lily (aka dianella) , liriope, banana (ornamental, abaca is the ideal for paper, fibre and cordage), yucca (full of saponins!), asparagus, cattail, carrizzo cane, canna lily, iris (european and african bi-color), various vines including invasive cats claw. I have several others awaiting trials. I have found that turkscap has bast fibre, same as paper mulberry plants (though I don’t think silkworms like that variety so much), willow, lantana and tree of heaven–which is also on the trial docket. I plan to try all vines I can grab in empty lots. I generally make paper from dead leaves and invasive vines. I know that you can use invasive water hyacinth for basket weaving and papermaking. IDK if it can be used for fiber. Leatherwood is also great, but my climate is too hot and dry to access that. Dogbane is another traditional Native American fibre, as is sansevieria (also known as bowstring hemp. I hear that grows all over Florida. Need to make a trip there to make paper. That plant is so hardy it never dies!) Other plants I need to grow and try are hollyhock, hops and grape vines. I saw a workshop (based in the UK but offering online courses) offering a class on processing and spinning hops fibers just last year.
There are so many plants we no longer use for fiber, it is a shame. I know hemp does not need as much water (or pesticides!) as cotton. Most of European clothes years ago were made from hemp and flax, so most of our paper was made from those rags.
Also, many of these plants do double duty: canna makes paper and you can eat the starchy roots (though I dod not find they are as tasty as described). Willow you can use bast fiber for paper, pliable branches for baskets, leaves make a lovely yellow and bark makes a rich brown. Marigold is beneficial in the garden and makes yellow.
This list is far from exhaustive. Most grasses contain some amount of fibre, at least enough to make paper and weave baskets. My color-making research list is many pages long, I am building a paper fibre list.
That’s so interesting! How do you make paper from those plants? That is definitely something I’d like to try. I wouldn’t waste homemade paper on something trivial, given all the work that I’m sure goes into making it . . . but art seems like it would be a great use of it.
I just barely learned something that is a wonderful discovery for anyone interested in watercolor painting: watercolor paper has something called “sizing” that keeps the pigments from sinking in instantly, so you can move them around. You can create your own sizing to turn any thick paper into something suitable for watercolors! I found a recipe online to make sizing by boiling wheat flour in order to extract the starch, and I thought, “That seems like too much bother. Why don’t I just save some of the water left over after cooking pasta, since I know that’s full of wheat starch?” So I tried it. It worked! All I had to do was paint both sides of the paper with the pasta water, and then let it dry. A second coating created a thicker layer of sizing, so I liked it even better when I repeated the process. I imagine a third or fourth coating might help a lot if you have pigments that tend to stain easily.
I mention that because that means I could probably turn any kind of homemade paper into something suitable for a watercolor painting, which would mean being able to paint on paper I had entirely made myself. Wouldn’t that be cool?
Of course, if I could find a great replacement for gum arabic that I could grow (Acacia senegal is tropical), then I could also make my own pigments, but . . . . . . that might be a whole nother topic altogether!
Thank for the suggestion. I don’t know what kind of bamboo grows around here, but I have been eyeballing the small groves as I walk/drive around. Large bamboo needs to be buried in pits of lye, or some such crazy endeavor, as it is very tough. I think if I harvest younger, green shoots, as I do with the carrizo cane, I could make paper with that. It is on my docket!
You are correct! Sizing matters. I frequently explain that it is sizing, not paper thickness that affects how wet materials absorb/buckle paper. (Blotter paper and watercolor paper may be the same thickness, but try watercolor on blotter paper….) There is a “bottle of chemistry” (I am no chemist, sadly) I can buy which is “alkyl ketene dimer”, a liquid I can mix in with pulp for sizing. Traditionally, far east Asian cultures use plant starch for sizing. Sometimes bugs like to eat that. I LOVE that you use old pasta water. That is brilliant! In the old days in Europe, people used animal sizing–like weak hoof and hide glue. Similar to starch sizing, it is an external size. Bugs also like to snack on that.
Speaking of snacks, pineapple leaves also have great fiber. One I have yet to try but have heard it makes unique paper is mango skins. It made me want to try the skins of my tiny striped melons–if only I can get my family to stop throwing those out!
So… replacements for gum arabic: if you have an injured peach tree (I hope not, but if you do…) they may exude a gummy sap. That can be used as a replacement for gum arabic. Soy also works as a binder, which is often used to mordant clothing for dyeing. I live where many mesquite trees grow. Mesquite beans can be ground to make flour and cooked into a sweet syrup. You can boils that syrup down to be thicker and use that as a paint binder. And speaking of starch, I have read that people use starch to thicken paint and ink, or cool it and use it for paint, as you might for very young children. In my professional work (the garden is fun), I am learning a lot about making my own colors and paint. If you are interested in making your own pigments, it is not that hard. Earth pigments are beautiful and stable. Plant color can be laked (a chemical process), something you can also do with an exhausted dye bath (leftovers from dyeing fabric). (late this year I am taking an online class to learn how to make/source the chemicals I need instead of buying them online, double-bagged in plastic). I may post a “basic papermaking with simple tools” video in the near future. I will let you know if I do. (I also own a hollander beater, the machine that processes fiber into pulp. Those cost $$$$. Basic is very doable)
More generally, biocontrols are a promising tool for suppressing aggressive/invasive species, but they have a long and fraught history of unintended consequences which has (rightfully) resulted in a much tighter regulatory framework for introducing new species. This shouldn’t be an issue with the Ailanthus silk moth given that it’s already naturalized here.
Also, this isn’t ailanthus specific, but Patterson Clark is a tremendously creative artist utilizing fibers, pigments, and other materials derived from a wide range of non-native species. Their website might have useful insight on processing techniques and evaluating a species for its usefulness as a fiber source. If nothing else, the videos are pretty stunning.
Oooh, I was wondering if there might be other leguminous trees that could produce a decent substitute for gum arabic. Mesquite is a legume, so it makes sense it might do that!
Peach sap is very interesting. I wonder if I collect it by making wounds that I actually want (a.k.a. necessary pruning) right around the time the sap flows, which would be January or February? I know you can collect small amounts of maple sap by breaking off branches and bending them down into bottles. Maybe I could do that with peach sap as well, with the branches I’d just pruned?
Of course, that would probably have a detrimental effect on the overall vigor of the tree, which might affect fruit set. But if it’s just a tiny bit, perhaps that might be negligible.
Wow, you’re an expert in making pigments, too? That is so cool!
@avery.bowron Ooh, thank you for the link! Tapping the abundance of exotic invasive species to make art supplies, as well as food, seems like a fantastic way to use more of them.
Hey, another interesting question just arose in my mind: fiber can be used for cloth, as well as for papermaking, and you mentioned soy working as a mordant for dyeing. Can a person use watercolor paint to decorate cloth, and then use a mordant to make the painting permanent? If so, that would be a really cool way to make beautiful homemade clothing.
Can you tell I’m a beginner in this stuff? I started out with food crops, because obviously those are essential for life. But I’m also interested in eventually replacing other things I use or wear with home-grown alternatives, both for the self-sufficiency and (even more importantly) ecological sustainability. Plus, it feels so cool and rewarding to know how to create beautiful, useful things using whatever natural materials I can find all around me!
All I had to do was paint both sides of the paper with the pasta water, and then let it dry. A second coating created a thicker layer of sizing, so I liked it even better when I repeated the process. I imagine a third or fourth coating might help a lot if you have pigments that tend to stain easily.
That is so cool!
I started out with food crops, because obviously those are essential for life. But I’m also interested in eventually replacing other things I use or wear with home-grown alternatives, both for the self-sufficiency and (even more importantly) ecological sustainability. Plus, it feels so cool and rewarding to know how to create beautiful, useful things using whatever natural materials I can find all around me!