American Cotton
Gossypium hirsutum
Also known as Bourbon Cotton, Upland Cotton
About American Cotton
Gossypium hirsutum, also known as upland cotton or Mexican cotton, is the most widely planted species of cotton in the world. Globally, about 90% of all cotton production is of cultivars derived from this species. In the United States, the world's largest exporter of cotton, it constitutes approximately 95% of all cotton production. It is native from Mexico to Ecuador and northeast Brazil, the Leeward Antilles in the Caribbean and the Pacific (Fiji, Marianas, Polynesia and Revillagigedo Islands). It is believed that Gossypium hirsutum was created when wild Mexican cotton breeds mixed with Gossypium herbaceum around 5-10 million years ago, producing a hybrid species with 4 pairs of chromosomes (totaling 52 chromosomes) via polyploidy.
Description adapted from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Plant Details
- Scientific name
- Gossypium hirsutum
- Genus
- Gossypium
- Family
- MALVACEAE
- Habit
- Undershrub
- Native to
- Tropical, north and central America
- Distribution
- Introduced to most tropical countries including India
- Flowering & fruiting
- September-March
- Conservation status
- Not Evaluated (NE)
Local Names
- Hindi
- कार्पास karpas, कार्पासी karpasi
- Nepali
- कपास kapas
- Bengali
- কাপাস kapasa, কার্পাস karpasa
- Tamil
- பருத்தி parutti
- Telugu
- ప్రత్తి pratti
- Kannada
- ಹತ್ತಿ hatti
- Malayalam
- കാര്പ്പാസം kaarppaasam
- Marathi
- कार्पास karpasa
Malvaceae
Mallow/Hibiscus family
American Cotton belongs to the Malvaceae family.
The illustration represents the family — not necessarily this exact species.
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