Sisal
Sisal, the name of a plant and also the name of the fiber obtained from its leaves. The fiber is used to make cord, rope, binder twine, and some floor coverings. The plant is native to Mexico and is named after the Mexican seaport of Sisal. Sisal is also cultivated in Central America, the West Indies, Brazil, eastern Africa, India, and Indonesia. A closely related plant, similar in appearance to sisal, is henequen, which is cultivated in Cuba and its native Mexico. It yields a fiber similar to sisal and is often called Mexican, or Cuban, sisal.
The leaves of the sisal plant are stiff, fleshy, and sword-shaped, and end in thorny tips. They grow in a rosette from a central bud at the base of the plant. Each leaf is about five feet (1,5 m) long and four inches (10 cm) wide and about two inches (5 cm) thick at the base. Green, funnel-shaped flowers are borne in spiked clusters on a long, single stalk that rises 15 to 20 feet (4.5 to 6 m) in the air. Bulbils (aerial buds) are borne among the flower clusters on the stalk. The bulbils and suckers (small shoots that form at the base of the plant) are used to propagate new plants.
Sisal is grown on large plantations. The plants are about three years old when their leaves are first harvested; they continue to produce new leaves for 6 to 15 years, depending on the local soil and climatic conditions. The outer, mature leaves of each plant are cut off twice a year, and the pulp is removed by machines. Then the fibers, about three feet (90 cm) long, are hung out in the sun to dry. They bleach from a greenish color to a creamy-white. The dried fiber is baled and sent to market. The yield of fiber is only about 3 or 4 per cent of the weight of the leaf.
The sisal plant is Agave sisalana; the henequen plant, A. fourcroydes. Both plants are of the agave family, Agavaceae.