Ramie

(First upload on June 27 2017. Last on February 4 2019) [ 日本語 | English ]

Boehmeria nivea (L.) Gaudich.

Mount Usu / Sarobetsu post-mined peatland
From left: Crater basin in 1986 and 2006. Cottongrass / Daylily

HOME > Plant list (植物リスト) > Urticaceae (イラクサ科) > Boehmeria nivea (L.)

Boehmeria Jacq. (カラムシ)

B. nivea (L.) Gaudich.
Lifeform: perennial forb < 1.5 m high
Leaf: alternate ⇔ B. japonica: opposite
var. concolor Makino (アオカラムシ)

f. nipononivea (Koidz.) Kitam. ex H. Ohba
Karamushi (カラムシ, 苧/枲), ramie
オ (紵), チョマ (苧麻), アオソ (青苧), ヤマオ (山紵), マオ (真麻/苧麻)
Distribution: widespread in the Eastern Asia, including Japan (south to Honshu)
Habitat: roadsides, forest edges, stone walls, etc.

Use: formerly producing fibers for clothes etc. (cultivation recorded 6,000 years b.p.)
Synonyms:

- ssp. nipononivea (Koidz.) Kitam.
- var. nipononivea (Koidz.) W. T. Wang

var. nivea (ナンバンカラムシ), the type
Synonyms:

Boehmeria nivea (L.) Gaudich. var. tenacissima auct. non (Roxb.) Miq.

Boehmeria nivea in Japan

Kyushu

var. concolor f. nipononivea
1 2 3
[1-3] in front of JR Nagasaki Station, western Kyushu, April 16 2017.

Kanto

4 5 6
[4-6] on October 19 2018. [4/5] in the Tokyo Garden Terrace Kioicho (biotope, corridor). [6] in the inner moat of Edo Castle, Tokyo.