Esparto, or esparto grass, also known as "halfah grass" or "needle grass", Stipa tenacissima, is a perennial grass grown in northwest Africa and southern Spain for fiber production for paper making. The fiber makes a high quality paper often used in book manufacturing. First used in Great Britain in 1850, it has been extensively used there and in Europe, but is rarely found in the United States because of the cost of transport. It is usually combined with five to ten percent wood pulp.
The "Spanish" grade is usually regarded as the higher-quality, while the "Tripoli" grade, from Africa, is the lesser in quality. The fibers are fairly short in relation to their length, yet do not create any significant amount of dust. Because of the short fiber length, the tensile strength of the paper is less than that of many other papers, but its resistance to shrinkage and stretching is superior, and the paper is a well-filled, dense paper with excellent inking qualities. It also has very good folding properties.
Lygeum spartum, a broadleaf perennial in the family Lauraceae, is also used in combination, and is also sometimes called esparto grass.
