Some fibers are used to make paper. Others, such as kapok, are too slick to spin into thread and are used to make stuffings or packing. Fibers are used for textiles, brushes, plaiting or coarse weaving, stuffing material, paper and specialty goods. Cotton, flax, ramie, and hemp are most often used for apparel or textile fibers. Kapok, cotton, Spanish moss, and jute are most often used for filling fibers.
Bast fibers come from the phloem tissues of dicotyledonous plants.
Hard fibers come from the leaves of certain monocotyledonous plants. Fiber extraction Bast fibers are removed from plant material by retting. The cell walls of soft, bast or true fibers are cellulose and are not easily broken down by bacteria. In retting, the plant material is placed in water or kept wet, while anaerobic bacteria digest away most of the plant tissue except the fibers. The remaining material is bent sharply to break the remaining vascular material away from the true fibers.