Esparto

Esparto, or esparto grass, also known as "halfah grass" or "needle grass", Stipa tenacissima, is a perennial grass grown in northwest Africa and southern Spain for fiber production for paper making. The fiber makes a high quality paper often used in book manufacturing. First used in Great Britain in 1850, it has been extensively used there and in Europe, but is rarely found in the United States because of the cost of transport. It is usually combined with five to ten percent wood pulp.

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The "Spanish" grade is usually regarded as the higher-quality, while the "Tripoli" grade, from Africa, is the lesser in quality. The fibers are fairly short in relation to their length, yet do not create any significant amount of dust. Because of the short fiber length, the tensile strength of the paper is less than that of many other papers, but its resistance to shrinkage and stretching is superior, and the paper is a well-filled, dense paper with excellent inking qualities. It also has very good folding properties.

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Lygeum spartum, a broadleaf perennial in the family Lauraceae, is also used in combination, and is also sometimes called esparto grass.

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Grass: In popular language grass means a short, green, ground covering or lawn, usually, but not necessarily comprised of a "true grass" or grasses, called turf. See also pasture, grassland.In botany, grass refers to plants of the Family Poaceae. These are the true grasses.Plants with "grass" in their name...

Africa: Africa is the world's second-largest continent and second most populous after Asia. At about 30,244,050 km² (11,677,240 mi²) including its adjacent islands, it covers 20.3 percent of the total land area on Earth. With over 800 million human inhabitants in 54 countries, it accounts for abou...

Spain: The Kingdom of Spain or Spain (Spanish and Galician: Reino de Espa?a or Espa?a; Catalan: Regne d'Espanya; Basque: Espainiako Erresuma; Asturian: Reinu d'Espa?a or Espa?a) is a country located in the southwest of Europe. It shares the Iberian Peninsula with Portugal, Gibraltar and Andorra. To the nor...