Puuvillat – Gossypium

Nearly all plant parts are irregularly dotted with black oil glands. Leaves are spirally arranged, stipulate, with 2-10 cm long petioles. Blades are orbicular, 3-15 cm in diameter, palmately 3-5-lobed for about half of their length, upper ones occasionally ovate and entire, base cordate, margin entire, densely pubescent to glabrous. Flowers are solitary, with pedicels 1-4 cm long. Epicalyx segments (bracteoles) are 3, free, closely enveloping the flower and fruit, ovate to triangular, up to 6.5 cm long, margin with acuminate teeth, persistent. Calyx is 5-7 mm long, 5-segmented, ruptured after flowering. Corolla is usually pale yellow to white, rarely witha purplish centre. Petals are 5, obovate, 2-5.5 cm long, overlapping each other. Stamens are numerous, forming a column 1-2 cm long, filaments 3-4 mm long. Pistil consists of a superior ovary, style inside the staminal tube and a united, lobed stigma. Fruit is an ovoid or globose capsule (‘boll’) 4-6 cm long, coarsely pitted, glabrous, opening on maturity along carpel edges with several seeds per cell. Seeds are ovoid, 3.5-10 mm long, black or brown with a dense covering of white or rusty, long, woolly hairs (lint or floss).