Boehmeria nivea, commonly known as ramie, Chinese grass or Chinese silk plant, is a monoecious shrub or subshrub in the family Urticaceae commonly found in China. It is native to warm temperate and tropical regions of the eastern Himalaya, and east and southeastern Asia. It grows to 2 metres tall, with alternately-arranged leaves 7–15 cm long and 6–12 cm broad, oval-acuminate with a serrated margin. Boehmeria nivea has been cultivated in China and elsewhere in southeast Asia for thousands of years, as the source of the fibre crop ramie. It has been introduced into tropical and subtropical parts of other continents, such the southeastern United States.
Taxonomy
Boehmeria nivea was first described by Carl Linnaeus in 1753 as Urtica nivea. In 1830, Charles Gaudichaud-Beaupré transferred it to the genus Boehmeria, which had been established by Nikolaus Joseph von Jacquin in 1760. The species has acquired a substantial number of synonyms, most in the genera Boehmeria and Urtica. Some varieties have been proposed but are not accepted: Boehmeria nivea var. tenacissima and Boehmeria nivea var. strigosa.