Jute
Corchorus olitorius
Summary 5
Jute is a long, soft, shiny vegetable fiber that can be spun into coarse, strong threads. It is produced from plants in the genus Corchorus, which was once classified with the family Tiliaceae, more recently with Malvaceae, and has now been reclassified as belonging to the family Sparrmanniaceae. "Jute" is the name of the plant or fiber that is used to make burlap, Hessian or gunny cloth.
Description 6
An erect, subglabrous, annual or biennial, up to 3 m tall (in cultivation). Stem basally woody, branched. Leaves 3-5-costate, lanceolate to ovate-lanceolate, 2.2-9 cm long, 1.8-4.2 cm broad, glabrous except the scattered hairy veins, serrate, basal serratures prolonged into filiform deflexed appendages, acute or acuminate; petiole 1-3.2 cm long, hairy; stipules subulate, 8-12 mm long. Cyme 1 or 2-flowered, antiphyllous, shortly pedunculate. Flowers yellow, 12-15 mm across; subsessile; bracts subulate, 4-5 mm long. Sepals linear-oblong, 5-7 mm long, 1.5-3 mm broad, keeled, caudate, somewhat bullate outside. Petals oblanceolate, 7-8 mm long, 2.5-4 mm broad, hairy at the base, obtuse. Stamens numerous, somewhat united at the base, filaments 6-7 mm long; anthers subglobose. Carpels 5; ovary cylindric, subsulcate, 5-loculed, thinly hairy; style short, stigma 5-lobed, minutely papillate. Capsules 1 or 2 together, 2-7.2 cm long, with 4-5 mm long, entire beak, c. 4-5 mm across, 10-angled, glabrous, 5-loculed, locules transversely septate. Seeds greenish-black, triangular, ovate, c. 2 mm long.
Distribution 7
Distribution: A native of the Indo-Pakistan subcontinent, now widespread throughout the world in tropical countries and north Australia, either by cultiva¬tion or as escape.
Sources and Credits
- (c) International Institute of Tropical Agriculture, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC), https://www.flickr.com/photos/iita-media-library/6219718237/
- (c) Dinesh Valke, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA), https://www.flickr.com/photos/dinesh_valke/5145943641/
- (c) Dinesh Valke, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA), https://www.flickr.com/photos/dinesh_valke/5145934305/
- (c) Dinesh Valke, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA), https://www.flickr.com/photos/dinesh_valke/5146536490/
- Adapted by Chandan Pandey from a work by (c) Wikipedia, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA), http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corchorus_olitorius
- (c) Missouri Botanical Garden, 4344 Shaw Boulevard, St. Louis, MO, 63110 USA, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC-SA), http://eol.org/data_objects/19804125
- (c) Missouri Botanical Garden, 4344 Shaw Boulevard, St. Louis, MO, 63110 USA, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC-SA), http://eol.org/data_objects/4972763
More Info
- iNat taxon page
- African Plants - a photo guide
- Atlas of Living Australia
- Biodiversity Heritage Library
- BOLD Systems BIN search
- eFloras.org
- Flora of North America (beta)
- Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF)
- HOSTS - a Database of the World's Lepidopteran Hostplants
- IPNI (with links to POWO, WFO, and BHL)
- NatureServe Explorer 2.0
- SEINet Symbiota portals
- Tropicos
- USDA PLANTS database
- World Flora Online
