Karpas / American Cotton
Gossypium hirsutum
Also known as Bourbon Cotton, Upland Cotton
- Habit
- Undershrub
- Found in India
- Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Chhattisgarh & more
- Flowering
- September-March
How to identify Karpas
Identify Karpas by combining habit, leaf characters, flower or fruit details, location, and its family pattern. Do not rely on one feature alone.
- Look for a undershrub habit.
- Check the distinctive field mark: Cotton fibers in seed pod.
- Confirm flower colour: Yellow.
- In season, compare flowering and fruiting time: September-March.
- In India, compare location records such as Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Chhattisgarh, Goa and nearby regions.
- Confirm it sits within the Malvaceae family pattern, then compare close relatives before deciding it is Karpas.
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
- Found in India
- Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Chhattisgarh, Goa, Maharashtra, Odisha, West Bengal, Arunachal Pradesh, Delhi, Gujarat, Uttarakhand
- Flowering & fruiting
- September-March
- Conservation status
- Not Evaluated (NE)
Leaf characters
- Arrangement
- Alternate
Typical of the Malvaceae family — a field-mark hint, not measured for this exact species.
Flower & fruit characters
- Flower colour
- Yellowrecorded
Typical of the family
- Flower symmetry
- Actinomorphic (radially symmetrical)
- Inflorescence
- Solitary
- Fruit
- Capsule
Characters marked “recorded” are for Karpas itself; the rest are typical of the Malvaceae family — flowering plants only.
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
About Karpas
A member of the Malvaceae family, American Cotton (Gossypium hirsutum) is a low shrub. In India it has been recorded in Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Chhattisgarh and 8 other states. Flowering and fruiting run from September to March.
Malvaceae
Mallow/Hibiscus family
Karpas belongs to the Malvaceae family.
The illustration represents the family — not necessarily this exact species.
Explore the Malvaceae familySnap it. Know it.
Point your camera at Karpas or any plant and SASYA identifies it instantly — on-device, offline, and private.
Common plant problems
If you are starting from symptoms instead of a diagnosis, use the plant disease symptom checker to narrow the cause before treating.
All plant problem & care guides