Gossypium arboreum

Tree cotton is a small plant. It grows in India and Sri Lanka. The plant has purple branches. Its leaves look like maple leaves. The flowers can be pale yellow. Some flowers have a purple center. The plant makes a fruit. Inside the fruit are seeds. The seeds have long white cotton on them. People use this cotton to make cloth. It is a very useful plant.

Tree cotton is a small plant. It grows in India and Sri Lanka. People grew it long ago. They used it to make cloth.

The plant is a shrub. It grows one to two meters tall. The branches are purple. They have fine hairs. The leaves look like maple leaves. They have five to seven lobes. The leaves have small glands on them.

Tree cotton has pretty flowers. They sit on short stalks called pedicels. The flowers are pale yellow. Some have a purple center. Others are all purple.

The plant makes a fruit called a capsule. The capsule is shaped like an egg. It has a pitted surface. Inside the fruit are round seeds. These seeds have long white cotton on them.

A type called "phuti karpas" was very special. It grew near the Meghna River. People used it to make Dhaka muslin. This cloth was made in Bengal. This cotton made very strong threads. No other kind of cotton was stronger.

Tree cotton is a very special plant. Its scientific name is Gossypium arboreum. This plant is native to India and Sri Lanka. People have used it for a long time. There is evidence of its use in the Indus Valley Civilisation. They grew it near the Indus River. They used the plant to make cotton textiles.

This plant grows as a shrub. It can grow one to two meters tall. The branches are purple and have fine hairs. The leaves look a bit like maple leaves. They have five to seven lobes. The leaves are attached to the stem by a petiole. This is a small stalk. The petiole is between 1.5 and 10 cm long.

The flowers of the tree cotton are quite pretty. They grow on short stalks called pedicels. The flowers are often a pale yellow color. Sometimes they have a purple center. Some flowers are entirely purple. There is a part called an epicalyx. This is a group of bracts that look like sepals. They are heart-shaped at the base.

Carl Linnaeus described this plant in 1753. He included it in his book Species Plantarum. He also provided the holotype for the species. This is a specific plant sample used for naming. This sample is now in the Linnean Herbarium. It is kept in the Swedish Museum of Natural History.

The plant produces a fruit called a capsule. This capsule is three or four cells. It is shaped like an egg or an oblong. The surface is pitted and hairless. Inside are round seeds. These seeds are covered in long white cotton. One type is called phuti karpas. It grew south of Dhaka near the Meghna River. This type made very strong Dhaka muslin.

Gossypium arboreum is a species of plant known as tree cotton. This shrub is native to the regions of India and Sri Lanka. It is highly valued because it produces fibers used for textiles. Humans have used this plant for thousands of years to make cloth. Evidence shows it was cultivated during the Indus Valley Civilisation. These ancient people grew it near the Indus River. They used the plant to create various cotton textiles.

The physical structure of tree cotton is quite distinct. It grows as a shrub reaching heights of one to two meters. The branches are a purple color and are covered in fine hairs. The leaves are attached to the stem by a petiole, which is a small stalk. These petioles measure between 1.5 and 10 cm in length. The leaf blades are shaped like an oval or a circle. They feature five to seven lobes. This gives the leaves a look similar to a maple leaf. The lobes are linear or lanceolate in shape. Sometimes, a small tooth is present in the sinus, which is the space between lobes.

Detailed botanical features help scientists identify this specific species. The leaves are glabrescent, meaning they lose their hairiness as they get older. However, young leaves possess hair that is both simple and stellate, or star-shaped. At the base of the leaves, you can find stipules. These are small structures that are linear or lanceolate in shape. They can also be falcate, which means they are shaped like a sickle. Glands are also found along the midrib or on the adjacent nerves of the leaf.

The reproductive parts of the plant are also very specific. The flowers grow on short stalks called pedicels. Each flower has an epicalyx, which is a series of bracts that look like sepals. These segments are dentate, meaning they have teeth along the edges. They are cordate, or heart-shaped, at the base and acute at the tip. The true calyx is much smaller and has a cupular, or cup-like, shape. It features five subtle dentations. The corolla, or the petals, is usually pale yellow. Some flowers have a purple center, while others are entirely purple. The staminal tube, which holds the anthers, is 1.5 to 2 cm long.

History plays a major role in how we understand tree cotton today. The Swedish scientist Carl Linnaeus included this plant in his work, Species Plantarum. He published this important book in 1753. Linnaeus also supplied the holotype for the species. A holotype is a single physical specimen used to formally describe a species. This original sample is currently held in the Linnean Herbarium. This herbarium is located within the Swedish Museum of Natural History.

The fruit of the plant is a capsule that contains the cotton fibers. This capsule is ovoid or oblong in its overall shape. It is composed of three or four cells. The surface of the capsule is glabrous, meaning it is hairless, and it appears pitted. There is also a beak located at the terminal end of the fruit. Inside the capsule are globular seeds. Each seed is covered in long, white cotton fibers. These fibers are the primary reason the plant is so important to humans.

There are specific varieties of tree cotton that have unique properties. One notable type is known as phuti karpas. This variant was grown in a specific area south of Dhaka. It grew along the banks of the Meghna River in Bengal, which is now Bangladesh. This specific type of cotton was used to produce Dhaka muslin. This fabric was very special because of the strength of its threads. The phuti karpas could be spun into threads with higher tensile strength than any other cotton variant. This allowed for the creation of extremely fine and strong textiles.