CRAFT INDUSTRIES FROM COASTAL WETLAND VEGETATION

Abstract

Inasmuch as water travel since earliest times has been the easiest mode of movement and transport, useful coastal plants have been prized, some declared sacred, their use regulated, and wanton destruction forbidden. Examples are the portia tree, Thespesia populnea, and the related mahoe, Hibiscus tiliaceus, both pantropic and both yielding wood and inner bark. Mangroves, particularly Rhizophora and Avicennia species, provide nearly indestructible wood, flexible branches for fish traps, tannin and dyes. The associated leather fern, Acrostichum aureum, furnishes edible fiddleheads and tough fronds for thatching. In the East Indies and Polynesia, Pandanus tectorius is an indispensable source of leaf products. Much building material in the form of woven matting is supplied by palms: the nypa (Nypa fruticans) over vast saline swamps of Oceania; in Malaysian freshwater swamps, the sago palms, Metroxylon; in tidal swamps of tropical America, the timiche, Manicaria saccifera. The moriche, Mauritia flexuosa, is the main fiber provider in the Orinoco delta. Cattails, Typha spp., are utilized on a worldwide scale; T. domingensis in saline swamps of the New World and the East Indies. Among sedges and grasses, Scirpus, Fimbristylis, Spartina and the universal reed, Phragmites communis, have served widely for hut-building, thatching, screens, matting, baskets, brooms and cordage.