Crops

These pages contain the most common crop plants grown in Britannia, many are for cloth making, whilst others are for food produce.

Cotton

The fluffy seed fibres produced by the flowering part of the cotton plant, are often gathered and spun into yarn for making cloth. There are many areas of Britannia devoted to growing this crop - and many adventurers often collect bundles of the fluffy produce to sell to tailors.

Flax
Linum usitatissimum

Flax is sometimes known as Linseed, the oil of which is used medicinally, though Flax is more commonly known and harvested for its fibrous qualities. The Flax fibre is usually extracted from the plant by pulverising the stems to remove the fibrous threads. The fibres are then usually waxed and rolled together to form thick cords, that can be used as string. The finer fibres are more often used in the production of linen, the very tightly woven fabric being of high quality and is frequently used for bedsheets. The quality and time it takes to make linen causes it to be rather expensive.

Linseed oil, which is quite often used to oil wooden tools and furniture (to preserve and strengthen the wood, as well as colour it) has a not so common medicinal use. Poultices of the crushed, ripe seed are traditionally made for drawing boils and inflammations, while linseed tea is a soothing and healing remedy for chest and lung infecctions. The seed also makes an effective bulk laxative. The light yellow oil obtained from flax seeds, was formerly taken to ease the passage of gallstones through the body but is no longer used medicinally.

Hay

Usually used as animal feed, hay is the stalk of grasses that are cut when green then allowed to dry. Sometimes corn stalks are used, though the produce of corn stalks is more commonly known as straw.

Hops
Humulus lupulus

Hops are often found growing in the wild, but are more often cultivated for the fruit, which resembles a fir cone. The fruit is often fermented to produce ale. Hops are vine plants, and always twine around their supporting structures in a clockwise direction. The leaves are three-lobed, very similar to those of the grapevine.

Wheat

Cereal grass of the Gramineae (Poaceae) family and of the genus Triticum and its edible grain, one of the oldest and most important of the cereal crops. It is often used in the making of bread.

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