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Papyrus umbrella1/13/2024 Papyrus stalks are a few inches thick, but my umbrella plant’s stalks are only an eighth to a quarter of an inch, so each one makes only a couple of strips.Īfter soaking a couple of days or so in water, the strips turn clear, and are then ready to be fished out of the water and laid side by side, slightly overlapping, on a piece of cloth. The Romans, and presumably the Egyptians, began by peeling off the outer, green layer to reveal the inner pith, which they then cut into strips. So put on your toga and sandals (the latter were also once made from papyrus) and cut down a few umbrella plant stalks for home-made paper. The Egyptians never recorded their method for making papyrus into paper, but the Romans learned the process from them, and Pliny the Elder wrote about it in the first century B.C. Plants reproduce this way in the wild as the top-heavy stalks eventually bow down into water. Roots and shoots will develop even if the upside-down top is immersed in a glass of water, in which case you can be entertained watching the roots and shoots grow. New roots and shoots develop from beneath the leaves. Snug the leaves at the top of the cut stalk back around it with a rubber band and then stick the top upside down into some wet soil. Clumps of plants can be divided and replanted – something papyrus frequently does by itself in nature, the clumps floating away to find a new home.Ī more interesting and fecund manner of making a new plant is to cut off the top of a stalk, leaving the last few inches intact. You do need a good supply of stems, which is no problem given the ease with which umbrella plant (and papyrus) propagates. The plant is so closely related and similar to papyrus that there is no reason why you couldn’t. Of course, the big question is: Can you make paper from umbrella plant? linked to deadly national outbreak: public health Kids’ emergency rooms are crunched in Canada.On the Brink: Halifax-area landlords say housing crisis is harming them too.Strawberry box homes? How Ottawa plans to make an old strategy new.Growing to 15 feet, true papyrus would strain against most ceilings. The most obvious differences are that papyrus’ stalks are topped by tufts of finer leaves, and papyrus is much more robust than umbrella plant. Sometimes called umbrella plant (Cyperus alternifolius) for its tall stalks topped with leaves that splay out, it’s a dead ringer for papyrus. Well, as I admitted to Zoe, my plant is not exactly papyrus, but a close relative, a mere species removed. And here the plant was, over 5,000 years later, growing at one of my sunny windows in winter. School kids know that papyrus (Cyperus papyrus) was used to make paper in ancient Egypt. Zoe really perked up when she learned that a plant she asked about was papyrus. And I agree that some – my climbing onion, rabbit’s foot fern and staghorn fern, for example – are at least as interesting-looking as they are pretty. Zoe, the young daughter of a friend of mine, finds my houseplants more interesting than beautiful.
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