Gossypium herbaceum

Shrub

Flowering : July-September

Annual undershrubs, ca. 1-1.5 m high; branchlets sparsely stellate-tomentose, glabrescent or glabrous. Leaves simple, alternate, spiral; stipules ca. 6-12 mm long, linear-lanceolate or obliquely ovate, petioles ca. 1.5-3.5 cm long; lamina ca. 2-5 cm long and broad, ovate- rounded, cordate at base, palmately 3,5 or 7-lobed, lobes ovate-rounded or oblong-elliptic, cordate at base, acute or apiculate at apex, entire. Flowers axillary, solitary; pedicels ca. 0.6-1.5 cm long; Epicalyx segments ca. 1-2 cm long, ovate-cordate, slightly connate at base, gashed across the top into 7-9 fairly long lanceolate; calyx ca. 7-10 mm long, cup-shaped, undulate or truncate; corolla yellow with purple centre; petals ca. 2.5-3.5 x 2.5-4 cm, obovate; staminal column ca. 1 cm long. Capsules ca. 3-4 cm long, ca. 2.5 cm across, oblong-obtuse, 4-loculed. Seeds 5-7 in each locule, ca. 5-8 x 2.5-5.5 mm, ovoid with greyish-white floss and grey fuzz.

Notes: Western Ghats, Cultivated

Cultivated

Throughout Assam

The main fibres of cotton plants are the longer seed hairs (‘lint’), used for making yarn to be woven into textile fabrics, alone or in combination with other plant, animal or synthetic fibres. Oil obtained from cotton seed is industrially used in a range of products, including margarine, mayonnaise, salad and cooking oils, salad dressing and shortening. It is also made into soap, cosmetics, lubricants, sulphonated oils and protective coatings.

It is widely used in traditional medicine, especially root preparations. Root maceration is given to new-born babies and sickly or rachitic children, to strengthen them.