Abacá

Abacá (/ɑːbəˈkɑː/ ah-bə-KAH; Spanish: abacá [aβaˈka]), binomial name Musa textilis, is a species of banana native to the Philippines, grown as a commercial crop in the Philippines, Ecuador, and Costa Rica. The plant, also known as Manila hemp, has great economic importance, being harvested for its fiber, also called Manila hemp, extracted from the leaf-stems. The plant grows to 13–22 feet (4.0–6.7 m), and averages about 12 feet (3.7 m). The fiber was originally used for making twines and ropes; now most is pulped and used in a variety of specialized paper products including tea bags, filter paper and banknotes. It is classified as a hard fiber, along with coir, henequin and sisal.

Description

The abacá plant is stoloniferous, meaning that the plant produces runners or shoots along the ground that then root at each segment. Cutting and transplanting rooted runners is the primary technique for creating new plants, since seed growth is substantially slower. Abacá has a "false trunk" or pseudostem about 6–15 inches (15–38 cm) in diameter. The leaf stalks (petioles) are expanded at the base to form sheaths that are tightly wrapped together to form the pseudostem. There are from 12 to 25 leaves, dark green on the top and pale green on the underside, sometimes with large brown patches. They are oblong in shape with a deltoid base. They grow in succession. The petioles grow to at least 1 foot (30 cm) in length. When the plant is mature, the flower stalk grows up inside the pseudostem. The male flower has 5 petals, each about 1.5 inches (3.8 cm) long. The leaf sheaths contain the valuable fiber. After harvesting, the coarse fibers range in length from 6–12 feet (180–370 cm) long. They are composed primarily of cellulose, lignin, and pectin.

Abacı

Abacı (IPA: [aˈbadʒɯ]) is a Turkish surname meaning "tailor or weaver of aba" (a kind of coarse fabric), and may refer to:

Šabac

Šabac (Serbian Cyrillic: Шабац, pronounced [ʃâbat͡s]) is a city in western Serbia, along the Sava river, near the mountain Cer, in the region of Mačva. It is the administrative center of the Mačva District. The city has a population of 70,164, while population of the administrative area is 115,884. Šabac acquired city rights in 2007, after a partial restructuring of local government in Serbia.

Name

The etymology of name Šabac is uncertain, although its resemblance to the name of the Sava River is suggestive. This name is in use since the end of the 15th century. In Serbian, the town is known as Šabac (Шабац), in Bosnian as Šabac, in Turkish as Böğürdelen, in German as Schabatz, and in Hungarian as Szabács.

History

Human settlements existed in this area in neolithic times. In the Middle Ages, Slavic settlement named Zaslon existed at the current location of Šabac. This settlement was mentioned in Ragusan documents from 1454. The settlement was part of the Serbian Despotate until it fell to the Ottoman Empire in 1459.