Fibre encyclopedia
Ramie
Also called ramie · rami · china grass · RA
Stem fibre from a tropical nettle. Long, smooth and stiff, and in Indonesian it shares a name with flax, which is a different plant.
Class
Natural
Comes from
From a plant
Where it comes from
Ramie comes from Boehmeria nivea, a plant that grows in tropical climates and can be cut several times a year. The fibre has to be freed from gum before it can be spun, which is a chemical step rather than the retting used for flax.
How it feels to wear
Air
Air moves through the fibre easily
Water
Takes water into the fibre
Heat
Lets body heat go
Stretch
No stretch of its own
Wear
Holds up to hard rubbing
Ramie is among the longest and smoothest of the stem fibres, and it holds its strength when wet. It has almost no elasticity, so a fold that is pressed repeatedly in the same place will eventually break the fibre there.
Care
- Wash cool, and dry flat if the cloth is loosely woven.
- Do not press the same fold twice.
Ramie is often blended with cotton to soften the hand, and then the care line follows the blend.
End of life
Recycling route
Mechanical recycling
Ramie appears in the waste stream in small volumes, so there is no collection sorted for it. It goes wherever the cloth it was blended into goes.
In a blend
The same rule as every plant fibre: a synthetic share in the yarn closes the mechanical route.
Skin notes
Mechanical
The fibre is stiff and the cut ends are hard, so a coarse ramie cloth is felt as scratchy in the same mechanical way a coarse wool is.
Chemical
The degumming step uses alkali, and residues from processing are not declared on any label.
If your skin reacts to a garment, a dermatologist and patch testing are what can answer it. A label cannot, and neither can this page.
What the label cannot tell you
An Indonesian label that says rami can mean ramie or flax, two different plants that European labelling rules name separately. The label does not resolve which one you are holding.
Sources
- Regulation (EU) No 1007/2011 on textile fibre names and related labelling, Annex I. Checked 22 August 2026
Written from primary sources and in our own words. Where a figure could not be traced to a source anyone can open, it is not printed here.
Read the label you are holding
The scan surface reads one care label and names which questions it answers and which it leaves out. A passport says for one specific piece what a label cannot: the composition with its percentages, where the cloth came from, who worked on it, how to repair it and where it goes next.