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Henequen (Agave fourcroydes Lem.) is an agave
Agave

Agave is a succulent plant plant of a large botanical genus of the same name, belonging to the family Agavaceae....
 whose leaves yield a fiber
Fiber

Fiber or fibre is a class of materials that are continuous filaments or are in discrete elongated pieces, similar to lengths of yarn. They are very important in the biology of both plants and animals, for holding tissue s together....
 also called henequen which is suitable for rope
Rope

A rope is a length of fibers, twisted or braided together to improve strength for pulling and connecting. It has tensile strength but is too flexible to provide compressive strength ....
 and twine
Twine

Twine is a strong thread or string composed of two or more smaller strands or yarns twisted together. More generally, the term can be applied to any thin cord....
, but not of as high a quality as sisal
SISAL

SISAL is a general-purpose single assignment functional programming language programming language with strict semantics, implicit parallelism, and efficient array handling....
. Alternative spellings are Henequin and Heniquen. It is the major plantation fiber agave of eastern Mexico
Mexico

The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federalism constitutionalism republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of Mexico....
, being grown extensively in Yucatán
Yucatán

Yucat?n is one of the States of Mexico of Mexico, located on the north of the Yucat?n Peninsula. The Yucatan peninsula includes three states: Yucat?n, Campeche, and Quintana Roo; all three modern states were formerly part of the larger historic state of Yucat?n in the 19th century....
, Veracruz
Veracruz

Veracruz, formally Veracruz de Ignacio de la Llave is one of the 31 states of Mexico that constitute the republic of Mexico....
, and southern Tamaulipas
Tamaulipas

Tamaulipas is one of the 31 States of Mexico of Mexico and is located in the northeast....
.

The plant appears as a rosette
Rosette (botany)

In botany, a rosette is a circular arrangement of leaves, with all the leaves at a single height.Though rosettes usually sit near the soil, their structure is an example of a modified stem....
 of sword-shaped leaves 1.2 to 1.8 meters long, growing out of a thick stem that may reach 1.7 meters (5 ft).






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Encyclopedia


Henequen (Agave fourcroydes Lem.) is an agave
Agave

Agave is a succulent plant plant of a large botanical genus of the same name, belonging to the family Agavaceae....
 whose leaves yield a fiber
Fiber

Fiber or fibre is a class of materials that are continuous filaments or are in discrete elongated pieces, similar to lengths of yarn. They are very important in the biology of both plants and animals, for holding tissue s together....
 also called henequen which is suitable for rope
Rope

A rope is a length of fibers, twisted or braided together to improve strength for pulling and connecting. It has tensile strength but is too flexible to provide compressive strength ....
 and twine
Twine

Twine is a strong thread or string composed of two or more smaller strands or yarns twisted together. More generally, the term can be applied to any thin cord....
, but not of as high a quality as sisal
SISAL

SISAL is a general-purpose single assignment functional programming language programming language with strict semantics, implicit parallelism, and efficient array handling....
. Alternative spellings are Henequin and Heniquen. It is the major plantation fiber agave of eastern Mexico
Mexico

The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federalism constitutionalism republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of Mexico....
, being grown extensively in Yucatán
Yucatán

Yucat?n is one of the States of Mexico of Mexico, located on the north of the Yucat?n Peninsula. The Yucatan peninsula includes three states: Yucat?n, Campeche, and Quintana Roo; all three modern states were formerly part of the larger historic state of Yucat?n in the 19th century....
, Veracruz
Veracruz

Veracruz, formally Veracruz de Ignacio de la Llave is one of the 31 states of Mexico that constitute the republic of Mexico....
, and southern Tamaulipas
Tamaulipas

Tamaulipas is one of the 31 States of Mexico of Mexico and is located in the northeast....
.

The plant appears as a rosette
Rosette (botany)

In botany, a rosette is a circular arrangement of leaves, with all the leaves at a single height.Though rosettes usually sit near the soil, their structure is an example of a modified stem....
 of sword-shaped leaves 1.2 to 1.8 meters long, growing out of a thick stem that may reach 1.7 meters (5 ft). The leaves have regularly-spaced teeth 3-6 mm long, and a terminal spine 2-3 cm long.

Like the sisal, A. fourcroydes is a sterile hybrid; the ovaries never produce seeds. The plant does produce bulbils
Bulb

A bulb is an underground vertical shoot that has modified leaf that are used as food storage organs by a dormancy plant.A bulb's leaf bases generally do not support leaves, but contain food reserves to enable the plant to survive adverse conditions....
 that may be planted, but commercial growers prefer to use the frequent sucker
Basal shoot

A basal shoot, root sprout, adventitious shoot, water sprout or sucker is a shoot or cane which grows from a bud at the base of a tree or shrub or from its roots....
s, which develop more quickly.

See Also

  • Sisal
    SISAL

    SISAL is a general-purpose single assignment functional programming language programming language with strict semantics, implicit parallelism, and efficient array handling....
     - a closely related agave plant that produces an almost-identical fibre
  • International Year of Natural Fibres
    International Year of Natural Fibres

    The United Nations General Assembly declared 2009 as the International Year of Natural fiber.The proposal for this International year originated in FAO at a joint meeting of the Intergovernmental Group on Hard Fibres and the Intergovernmental Group on Jute in 2004, and was endorsed by FAO Conference in 2005....
     2009

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