Plant Name
Scientific Name: Gossypium thurberi
Synonym: Thurberia thespesioides
Common Names: Thurber's Cotton, Desert Cotton
Plant Characteristics
Duration: Perennial, Deciduous
Growth Habit: Tree, Shrub
Arizona Native Status: Native
Habitat: Desert, Upland. It grows on rocky hillsides or in foothill washes or canyons.
Flower Color: White, Pink (old flowers)
Flowering Season: Summer (late), Fall (early)
Height: To 7 feet (2.1 m) tall or more
Description: The cup-shaped flowers are 1 1/2 inches (3.8 cm) wide and have 5 broad, white petals that fade to pink as they age. The petals are either solid white or streaked with pink at the base. The flowers are followed by round, green seed capsules that dry to a brown color and split open to reveal the seeds and only a few, sparse cotton fibers. This plant is related to cultivated cotton, but its cotton is too paltry for commercial use. The leaves are green and palmately lobed with 3 or 5 point-tipped lobes. The leaves turn a bright red color in the fall (around late October).
Classification
Kingdom: Plantae – Plants
Subkingdom: Tracheobionta – Vascular plants
Superdivision: Spermatophyta – Seed plants
Division: Magnoliophyta – Flowering plants
Class: Magnoliopsida – Dicotyledons
Subclass: Dilleniidae
Order: Malvales
Family: Malvaceae – Mallow family
Genus: Gossypium L. – cotton
Species: Gossypium thurberi Todaro – Thurber's cotton
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