Rice Paper Plant
In Europe, around the 1900s, a paperlike substance was originally known as rice paper, due to the mistaken notion that it is made from rice. In fact, it consists of the pith of a small tree, Tetrapanax papyrifer, the rice paper plant.
The plant grows in the swampy forests of Taiwan, and is also cultivated as an ornamental plant for its large, exotic leaves. In order to produce the paper, the boughs are boiled and freed from bark. The cylindrical core of pith is rolled on a hard flat surface against a knife, by which it is cut into thin sheets of a fine ivory-like texture.
Dyed in various colors, this rice paper is extensively used for the preparation of artificial flowers, while the white sheets are employed for watercolor drawings. Due to its texture this paper is not suited for writing.
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—Philip Roth (b. 1933)
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