Gossypium

Levant cotton Gossypium herbaceum, copyright Patricio Novoa Quezada.

Belongs within: Eumalvoideae.

Gossypium, cotton bushes, is a pantropical genus of shrubs that commonly bear hairy seeds. A number of species are widely cultivated as a source of fibre.

Characters (from Harden 1990): Perennial or facultative annual shrubs, often deciduous. Leaves entire or variously lobed, mostly 3-5-lobed, glabrous to pubescent. Flowers usually solitary, rarely clustered, axillary. Epicalyx segments 3, narrow to cordate, entire or deeply cut. Calyx short, truncate, 5-toothed or 5-lobed. Petals often large, usually with a darker area at the base. Ovary 3-5-locular; loculi with 2-several ovules; style and stigma usually long and slender. Fruit a capsule, 3-5-locular; seeds usually hairy.

<==Gossypium
    |--G. acuminatum C55
    |--G. amourianum P90
    |--G. arboreum P06
    |    |--G. a. var. arboreum P06
    |    `--G. a. var. wightianum (Tod.) Almeida 1996 (see below for synonymy) P06
    |--G. aridum P90
    |--G. australe LK14
    |--G. barbadense [incl. G. peruvianum] H90
    |--G. costulatum LK14
    |--G. enthyle LK14
    |--G. exiguum LK14
    |--G. herbaceum WS01
    |    |--G. h. var. herbaceum S00
    |    `--G. h. var. africanum S00
    |--G. hirsutum LK14
    |--G. klotzschianum P90
    |--G. lobatum WS01
    |--G. londonderriense LK14
    |--G. marchantii LK14
    |--G. nobile LK14
    |--G. obtusifolium C55
    |--G. pilosum LK14
    |--G. populifolium LK14
    |--G. pulchellum LK14
    |--G. punctatum C55
    |--G. raimondii P90
    |--G. religiosum C55
    |--G. robinsonii EF04
    |--G. rotundifolium LK14
    |--G. sturtianum [incl. G. gossypioides, G. sturtii] H90
    |    |--G. s. var. sturtianum H90
    |    `--G. s. var. nandewarense H90
    |--G. thurberi P90
    |--G. tomentosum P90
    `--G. tribolum P90

Gossypium arboreum var. wightianum (Tod.) Almeida 1996 [=G. wightianum Tod. 1863, G. herbaceum var. wightianum (Tod.) Cooke 1901, G. obtusifolium var. wightianum Watt. 1907] P06

*Type species of generic name indicated

REFERENCES

[C55] Candolle, A. de. 1855. Géographie Botanique Raisonée: Ou exposition des faits principaux et des lois concernant la distribution géographique des plantes de l’époque actuelle vol. 2. Librairie de Victor Masson: Paris.

[EF04] Etten, E. J. B. van, & J. E. D. Fox. 2004. Vegetation classification and ordination of the central Hamersley Ranges, Western Australia. Journal of the Royal Society of Western Australia 87 (2): 63–79.

[H90] Harden, G. J. (ed.) 1990. Flora of New South Wales vol. 1. New South Wales University Press.

[LK14] Lyons, M. N., G. J. Keighery, L. A. Gibson & T. Handasyde. 2014. Flora and vegetation communities of selected islands off the Kimberley coast of Western Australia. Records of the Western Australian Museum Supplement 81: 205–244.

[P90] Page, R. D. M. 1990. Tracks and trees in the Antipodes: a reply to Humphries and Seberg. Systematic Zoology 39 (3): 288–299.

[P06] Parmar, P. J. 2006. Additions to the flora of Gujarat from Mehsana and Kutch districts (N. Gujarat). Bulletin of the Botanical Survey of India 48: 191–196.

[S00] Siddiqi, M. R. 2000. Tylenchida: Parasites of plants and insects 2^nd ed. CABI Publishing: Wallingford (UK).

[WS01] Wilson, L. J., & V. O. Sadras. 2001. Host plant resistance in cotton to spider mites. In: Halliday, R. B., D. E. Walter, H. C. Proctor, R. A. Norton & M. J. Colloff (eds) Acarology: Proceedings of the 10^th International Congress pp. 314–327. CSIRO Publishing: Melbourne.