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Levant cotton

Gossypium herbaceum

Also called Arabian Cotton, Maltese Cotton, Short Staple Cotton, Syrian Cotton, Cultivated Cotton

Levant cotton
Photo: H. Zell, CC BY-SA 3.0

Levant cotton is a short, shrubby cotton species from semi-arid Southern Africa and the Near East, grown for its fibre and seeds. It is best suited to hot, dry conditions with plenty of sun.

Family
Malvaceae (Mallow family)
Grows as
Shrub
Light
Full sun
Water
Water deeply but infrequently, letting the soil dry between waterings.
Soil
Well-drained, sandy or loamy soil.
Temperature
20–35 °C; protect below 10 °C
How easy
Easy
Safety
Mildly toxic: Seeds and other plant parts contain gossypol, a polyphenolic compound that can be toxic if eaten in quantity.
Native range
S. Trop. & S. Africa, Syria to Afghanistan
Climate
seasonally dry tropical

About

Gossypium herbaceum, commonly known as Levant cotton, is a species of cotton native to semi-arid regions of Southern Africa, as well as from Syria to Afghanistan, where it still grows perennially in the wild as a shrub.

Uses

The main use of cotton lint is to produce textiles for clothing. The fibres are spun into yarns and these are woven into fabrics, in the farm or house or in factories. Cotton as a fabric is much appreciated because of its comfortable, breathable properties, its resistance and also because it is easily stained.

Other Gossypium plants

African Wild Cotton · Tree cotton · Creole cotton · Upland cotton · Hawai'ian cotton · Cotton

Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Gossypium herbaceum by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.

The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.

Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.

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