Gossypium hirsutum (Upland Cotton)

Native from Mexico into northern tropical South America and on certain Pacific islands, this widely branching shrub has leaves divided into three to five broad lobes. Large, deeply cut green bracts surround the flowers. Petals are cream to pale yellow when fresh and often turn pink as they age. Rounded seed capsules split into several chambers, revealing seeds covered in cotton fibers. Cultivated forms supply much of the world’s cotton fibre for textiles. The seeds also yield cooking oil after refining, but ordinary raw cottonseed contains toxic gossypol. It has naturalized in Hawaiʻi and parts of northern Australia. Photographed in Colombia.