Abutilon theophrasti
Other common names for Velvet Leaf include: Buttonweed, Indian Mallow, Butterprint, China Jute, Abutilon Hemp, Manchurian Jute, American Jute, Tientsin Jute, Piemaker, and in Chinese Ching-ma. It’s debatable whether the plant is native to India or China.
Velvet Leaf is a commercial failure but a successful foreign invader. A flop as a fiber plant and cursed for its infiltration of food crops, it was first cultivated in China some 3,000 years ago. From there it made its way nearly everywhere on earth. First the Mediterranean area, then Europe. It was introduced into North America before 1750 to make rope but never became popular for that. Velvet Leaf never became the great promised fiber plant in North America because of the lack of machinery to economically process it. Instead it became an agricultural pest. That is has edible parts went by the wayside.
Where the plant is native its seeds are a common outdoor snack of children. The unripe seeds are edible raw. Young seeds taste similar to sunflower seeds. Ripe seeds, however, must be leached until not bitter, then dried they are ground into flour. Usually the flour was used to make noodles. The seeds contain between 15 and 30% oil.
Usually Abutilon theophrasti is found near farming activities: gardens, crop fields, nurseries, orchards, groves and the like. It’s significant problem where corn, cotton or soybeans are grown sometimes displacing 35% or more of the crop causing losses in the hundreds of millions of dollars. As a fiber source in Asia it has been used for rope, bags, coarse cloth, fishing nets, paper stock even caulking boats.
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