Esparto, or esparto grass, also known as "halfah grass" or "needle grass", Macrochloa tenacissima and Stipa tenacissima, is a perennial
grass grown in northwest
Africa and southern
Spain employed for crafts (
cords,
baskets...).It´s also used 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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