Kenaf, is it hemp?

My sister just left a comment about a Texan growing 'Cannabis hibisicus', most likely Hibiscus cannabinus, which is Kenaf, or Ambari hemp. Years ago hemp could legally be used to describe a number of fibres, but since the mid-twentieth century it has been limited to Cannabis sativa.
Or it could have been some other sort of hibiscus, which occasioned police action at the home of some law abiding citizens of the Lone Star State, see my reply (scroll down two posts).
Kenaf has been experimented with by the US government as a source of fibre hemp, and is a viable plant to explore for this, but does not also provide the many other products that C. sativa does.
The image below shows the superficial similarity between the two, the flower, of course, varying greatly.

GEOMIO AND MINAWEAR PREPARE FOR EARTH DAY

Had a good talk yesterday with Edie Marrs of GeoMio, a natural fibres company in Los Angeles which has recently merged with Minawear Hemp Clothing. She is into hemp and all other natural fibres, with a large selection of bamboo articles in stock to choose from. A very interesting person she seems, telling me that happiness is being curled up with an academic tome about 5,000 year old fibres. Mention nettles, ramie, jute or kenaf to most people and they draw a blank, but to Edie, these are hot topics.

These are not, however, just niche fields for hobbyists, as the cultivation of cotton and the production of plastics threatens to destroy our way of life. Water is becoming more and more expensive, so much so that in the future wars may be waged over access to this simple compound, yet cotton is reducing major waterways to trickles, both in the East and in the West. In the former, the Aral Sea is reduced to half of its size since 1960, and in the West, waterways in California are becoming depleted, with migratory birds unable to find their way.

Edie and her new partner Mina Hegaard will be in Santa Barbara this Earth Day, so if you are able to swing by, say hi and, with a good ocean breeze to take copies of Hemp for Victory to the dock in LA, they will be in hand, the first shipment to America. If you miss them there, copies can be ordered at the links provided above.

FIVE HEMP ARTICLES IN THE

JOURNAL OF NATURAL FIBERS

A sister publication of the Journal of Industrial Hemp is the Journal of Natural Fibers, published in New York by the Haworth Press. Articles on bamboo, kenaf, flax, nettles, coir, jute, wool and, of course, hemp will be found in its pages. It is mainly edited in Poland by the Institute of Natural Fibres in Poznan, under the direction of Ryszard Kozlowski. An international editorial board works to make this a cutting edge work with peer reviewed articles on the latest technology.

A recent copy, Volume 2 # 1, 2005, ran five articles on hemp:

The Influence of Growing Factors and Plant Cultivation Methods on Biomass and Fibre Yield as Well as on Fibre Quality of Hemp (Cannabis sativa L.), by Tanja Schafer

Trends and Methods in Hemp Breeding in Poland, by H. Burczyk, Mieczyslaw Kowalski and Michal Pwavuszevski

Analysis of Hemp Chemical Pulp Monosaccharide Degradation Compared with Aspen and Spruce Chemical Pulps, by D.N. Roy

Refining Hemp Fibres for Papermaking, by Olev Trass and Constatin Delibas

Steam Distillation of Essential Oils from Hemp Panicles, by R. Kaniewski and W. Konczewicz