It is called the lacebark or gauze tree because the inner bark is structured as a fine netting that has been used for centuries to make clothing as well as utilitarian objects like rope.

[3] Lagetta lagetto, the lacebark (sometimes: lace-bark) or gauze tree, is native to the islands of Jamaica, Cuba, and Hispaniola (in both Haiti and the Dominican Republic).

[10] It produces a roundish, hairy drupe inside of which is a dark-brown, ovoid kernel about one-quarter inch long.

It is now rare, probably in large part due to such overexploitation combined with more general loss of forest lands in the same period.

[3][11] The extracted netting would be stretched out—expanding the textile to at least five times its original width[3]—and then bleached to a bright white through sun-drying.

[3] In 1883, the French naturalist Félix-Archimède Pouchet wrote that lacebark was "as fine as our muslin and even takes its place in the toilet of our ladies".

[3] The second half of the 19th century saw numerous appearances of lacebark items in industrial exhibitions, possibly because the British perceived a potential for expanded production in Jamaica.

[3] However, commercial-scale production never took off, and by the 1880s, most lacebark appears to have been shifted into the creation of tourist souvenirs such as doilies, fans, and ornamental whips.

[11] One travel writer referred to these souvenirs as works of art that "exhibit refined taste and excellent workmanship.

[3][6][15] Production of lacebark items (even as souvenirs) started tailing off in the early 20th century, largely because of the increasing rarity of the trees but also partly because of the labor-intensive nature of harvesting work and (after World War II) a decline of interest in traditional crafts.

It is uncertain whether the Taino Amerindians, the former inhabitants of the Caribbean islands to which the genus Lagetta is native, ever made lacebark.

[11] Lacebark appears early in European writing about Jamaica; for example, Sir Hans Sloane mentions it in his account of a trip to the island in the 1680s.