What is Cotton?

What is Cotton?
Cotton, belonging to a family that includes hibiscus and okra, produces a natural vegetable fiber used in the manufacture of cloth. Cotton produces a sweet nectar that attracts a variety of destructive insect pests, including the boll weevil, bollworm, armyworm, and the red spider. In addition to insect pests, there is also a very destructive fungus, called the wilt, that attacks the root system of the cotton plant.

Species.
A few species are grown commercially; these range from a small tree of Asia, to the common American Upland cotton, a low, multibranched shrub that is grown as an annual. Another species includes the long-fiber Egyptian and Sea Island cottons botanically derived from the Egyptian species brought to the United States about 1900. Sea Island cotton thrives in the unique climate of the Sea Islands, located off the southeastern coast of the United States, and on the islands of the West Indies such as Barbados. As with Egyptian cotton, the fiber is white and lustrous but its fiber length is longer than that of any other type of cotton, which permits the spinning of extremely fine yarns. Pima, originally called American-Egyptian cotton, is a hybrid type. It is the only variety of long-fiber cotton now grown in commercially significant quantities in the United States, where it is cultivated under irrigation in the Southwest.