Gossypium herbaceum Seeds | Cotton
LATIN NAME: Gossypium herbaceum
COMMON NAME: Cotton
Plant Profile
Gossypium herbaceum, better known as Cotton, is an upright, bushy, annual in the mallow family. Cotton opens its pale, papery flowers, then white bolls burst along the branches. It is a plant of open, sunny, deep, moist, rich ground. Not many plants ask so little and repay so much.
Science & Biotechnology
Botanists studying the mallow family regularly include Gossypium herbaceum in comparative work, and the species also appears in horticultural trials aimed at gardeners and growers. In practice, its long garden history means the grower inherits a plant of known and dependable habits.
Uses & Benefits
In the garden, Cotton earns its place in borders, containers and mixed plantings, and it also rewards growers who raise plants for cutting, drying or kitchen use. Cotton is a fine, historic plant of warm field and study collection. It is a fine, historic plant of open, sunny, deep, moist, rich garden. Give young plants warm, sheltered spot, and bolls will come in the first warm season. It establishes readily and then requires nothing out of the ordinary.
Cotton clothed the world, and its seed now yields cooking oil and protein-rich meal; cotton root bark had a significant historical record in American folk medicine, and gossypol from the seed remains a studied compound.
Growing from Seed
Starting Cotton from seed is simple and satisfying. Fill a pot with a light seed compost, sow evenly on the surface, cover thinly and stand it somewhere warm, bright and evenly moist. Prick the seedlings out once they are large enough to handle, grow them on in bright light, and plant out when conditions allow.
Our Take
Cotton has real presence in the garden without demanding much in return. Keep the sowing evenly moist at the start — that is the one real requirement.
Related Reading
Gardeners who grow Cotton often pair it with these related subjects: