CULTIVATION OF STINGING NETTLE URTICA-DIO ICA L WITH HIGH-FIBER CONTENT AS AN RAW-MATERIAL FOR THE PRODUCTION OF FIBER AND CELLULOSE - QUALITATIVE AND QUANTITATIVE DIFFERENTIATION OF ANCIENT CLONES

Studies on different clones of stinging nettles have been carried out at the Institute of Applied Botany, Hamburg, between 1992 and 1995. Th ey are based on researches of late Prof. Dr. G. BREDEMANN executed fro m 1920 to 1950. After 40 years the plants BREDEMANN bred during that p eriod (30 clones) have been started to being cultivated again at the I nstitute of Applied Botany, Hamburg, FRG. The genetic identity of the clones remained unchanged through vegetative propagation, but there ha ve not been found any plant description or data concerning growth beha viour and fibre content of named nettle clones. Therefore studies were outlayed to define suitable differential diagnostically parameters fo r the description and differentiation of the traditioned clones basing on certain combinations of its morphological, anatomical and economic al characteristics. Six of the 30 clones were described by using 23 ch aracteristics. The characteristics probably can be used as a basis for the differentiation of cultivars following the UPOV criteria. Further more, the fibre content could be determined by means of a new method u sing a computer aided image analysing system and a optimised chemical procedure. The clone with the highest fibre content had 12,76 per cent of dry weight fibres in 1995.