Jute

Corchorus aestuans, a wild jute or jute mallow of the family Malvaceae (formerly Tiliaceae), is an annual herb widespread through the tropics of Africa, Asia and the Americas, growing on wasteland, roadsides, field margins and other disturbed, sunny ground. It develops a slender, often reddish, branching stem up to about one metre tall, bearing alternate, ovate to lance-shaped leaves with toothed margins, the lowest teeth on each side typically drawn out into slender bristle-like points. Small yellow five-petalled flowers arise singly or in few-flowered clusters opposite the leaves. The distinctive fruit is an elongated, cylindrical, several-angled capsule with conspicuous longitudinal ridges or wings and a beaked tip, splitting to release numerous small angular seeds. Fast-growing and weedy, it is gathered as a leafy potherb in many regions and yields a coarse bast fibre similar to that of cultivated jute.