Cotton - plant profile

Names

Cotton (English)
Vadara, karpasi, tundikeri
samudranta (Sanskrit)
Kapas, rui, tula (G. arboreum - Hindi, Bengal, Gujarat, Punjab).

Botanical names: Gossypium arboreum, Gossypium barbadense, Gossypium herbaceum, Gossypium hirsutum
Family: Malvaceae, the marsh mallow family

The plant

Cotton plants can grow into shrubs 6 to 20 m high, although they are usually much smaller in cultivation.

A photograph of a cotton plant growing at Kew Gardens, with pink flowers.

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Image: A live cotton plant growing at Kew Gardens.

Leaves - broad and have three to five (or even seven) lobes.

Fruits - creamy-white flowers are produced that later turn deep pink and fall off, leaving seed pods called 'cotton bolls'. Inside the bolls are seeds surrounded by fibres which are spun into thread for cloth. These cotton fibres are used to make 40% of the world's textiles.

A photograph of cotton seeds covered with fuzz fibres from Kew's Economic Botany Collection.

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There are about 50 species of cotton, but only four are cultivated: G. hirsutum and G. barbadense from the New World, and G. herbaceum and G. arboreum from the Old World. All were domesticated independently for their fibre.

90% of the world's cotton is now produced from cultivars of G. hirsutum and G. barbadense. The Asian cottons have a minor economic role, mainly in South Asia.