Boehmeria cylindrica. a. Top of plant, b. Staminate buds and cluster of pistillate flowers, c and e. Clusters of pistillate flowers in different stages, d. Staminate flower, f. Fruit. Drawn by Vivian Frazier. From Correll and Correll 1972.

Moerman (1998) did not include this species, but there are archaeological and historical data that it was important to indigenous people. Whitford (1941) had material from Bushwick Cave in Arkansas, and said that the plant was used for fiber “by practically all the tribes” covered in his survey; he gave examples from only five. The Cherokee used it to make a string for a feather charm. The Delaware used the fiber in stringing wampum, and there were two wampum belts from the Iroquois using cord from Boehmeria. The Ojibwa made a bowstring of it. The Micmac fastened the handle of a knife to the blade with cords of the fiber and used the plant to make a cord on one of their fish spears. In his later paper, Whitford (1943) thought that this genus was used less often than either Laportea or Urtica for fibers. Still, all were “much prized for fine work.”