Where does Hemp come from?

Hemp comes from China, Central and East Asia, where it dates to Antiquity.

Plate No. 129fabric

The coarse, strong bast fiber of sailcloth and canvas.

First documented: Antiquity
Origin: Central and East Asia, China
Fiber: hemp
Weave: bast fiber, woven into coarse strong cloth
Family: fibers

Plate No. 129 · fabric

Hemp

Hemp is one of the oldest cultivated fibers, a strong, coarse bast fiber stripped from the stalk of the hemp plant. Exceptionally durable and resistant to rot and salt water, it became the indispensable cloth of the age of sail, made into sailcloth, rope, rigging, and the canvas that takes its name from cannabis. It clothed working people and soldiers for millennia before cotton's rise, and it is enjoying a revival as a fast-growing, low-input crop. As a textile fiber hemp is closely related to flax, the plant behind linen, and the two cloths can be hard to tell apart.

Illustration: a sailmaker's loft in a great age-of-sail port, long bolts of heavy canvas spread across the plank floor, coils of rope and rigging stacked along the walls, a worker seen at a distance stitching a sail, light from tall windows — A sailmaker's loft in a great age-of-sail port, long bolts of heavy canvas spread across the plank floor, coils of rope and rigging stacked along the walls, a worker seen at a distance stitching a sail, light from tall windows.

Named for

From the Old English henep, from the same ancient root as the Greek kannabis.

Common questions

What is Hemp made of?: Hemp is one of the oldest cultivated fibers, a strong, coarse bast fiber stripped from the stalk of the hemp plant.
Where does Hemp come from?: Hemp comes from China, Central and East Asia, where it dates to Antiquity.
What is Hemp named after?: From the Old English henep, from the same ancient root as the Greek kannabis.