It behaved very strangely .... it was puffy and very floaty in the beater. In pulling it, it drained immediately. It required lots of agitation as the long fibers liked to clump together. I added some okra water, which helped, but I needed a more assertive dispersal agent.
After I pulled it , the couched sheets were far thinner than they seemed on the mould and the whiteness was golden and transluucent......
After drying the only consistent sheets were the ones I thought I pulled too thick..... the other ones were inconsistent. The sheets dried with lots of fiber bits--- rough and very soft.
This was a surprise as all I saw in the beater and the vat were these long fibers. They were too prevalent to have been from the cotton. In fact, I saw tiny white bits of cotton among the pearl.
Translucent. I rolled a one of the not quite dry sheets and it made fabulous beads. I also made a very small vessel with a couple of sheets an d while softer than i prefer, its pearl/oyster with the tiny bits looked nice.
So was it the root that was the source of the long fibers? The stems? Or does the plant have a bast that's fabulous and a bunch of stuff that isn't?
Mentha aquatica L. water mint
U.S. Nativity: Introduced
Division Magnoliophyta - Flowering plants
Class Magnoliopsida - Dicotyledons( from U.S.D.A. National Resources Conservation Sevice http://plants.usda.gov/)
Subclass Asteridae -
Order Lamiales -
Family Lamiaceae - Mint family
Genus Mentha L. - mint
Species Mentha aquatica L. - water mint
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