Fibre Used in Hatmaking Crossword Clue

Fibre used in hatmaking crossword clue. Fiber used in hat making. Daily Telegraph Sydney’s big one crossword on Saturday, 10 June 2017. 6 letters.

The answer: RAFFIA

The Raffia palms (Raphia) are a genus of about twenty species of palms native to tropical regions of Africa, and especially Madagascar, with one species (R. taedigera) also occurring in Central and South America. Raphia taedigera are the source of raffia fibers, which are the veins of the leaves, and produces a fruit called “brazilia pods”, “uxi nuts” or “uxi pods”.

They grow up to 16 m (52.5 ft) tall and are remarkable for their compound pinnate leaves, the longest in the plant kingdom; leaves of R. regalis up to 25 m (82.38 ft) long[3] and 3 m (9.84 ft) wide are known. The plants are either monocarpic, flowering once and then dying after the seeds are mature, or hapaxanthic. Some species have individual stems which die after fruiting, but have a root system which remains alive and sends up new stems which fruit.