SHADOW SHOT SUNDAY - PAPYRUS

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                                                     Found this plant at the Union Square Green Market recently

Aquatic plant, CYPERUS PAPYRUS, said to be of the Nile Valley, provided material on which to write, prepared from thin strips of the pith of the plant laid together, soaked, pressed, dried, used by ancient Egyptians, Greeks and Romans.   As the craft of papermaking took over following the laborious preparation of materials made from plants and the bark of trees, paper itself eventually became differently made (said to have been invented in the 2nd century A.D) coming to the western world by a roundabout route from China.   For contemporary artist creative papermakers, a good read and how-to book on the subject is PAPER PLEASURES by Faith Shannon (Grove Weidenfield, 1987)

The height of the plant can reach 10 ft.

It is already 3 ft. high.  Yikes!

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