Southern Living on MSN: How To Grow And Care For Cotton Rose Cotton rose (Hibiscus mutabilis) plants have showy, colorful blooms that appear in fall. This Southern heirloom plant is easy to care for, here’s how. Fact checked by Emily Peterson Reviewed by Julie ...

Understanding the Context

What plant is found in landscapes but is poorly available in most local nurseries, is closely related to okra and cotton but is called a rose and produces showy fall flowers that turn from white to ... Cotton (from Arabic qutn) is a soft, fluffy staple fiber that grows in a boll, or protective case, around the seeds of the cotton plants of the genus Gossypium in the mallow family Malvaceae. The fiber is almost pure cellulose and may contain minor percentages of waxes, fats, pectins, and water. Cotton is the seed-hair fiber of several species of plants of the genus Gossypium, belonging to the hibiscus, or mallow, family.

Key Insights

Cotton, one of the world’s leading agricultural crops, is plentiful and economically produced, making cotton products relatively inexpensive. Cotton is the most widely produced natural fiber on the planet. Other natural fibers include silk, made from the cocoons of silkworms; wool, made from the fur of sheep or alpacas; and linen, made from fibers in the stems of flax plants. The meaning of COTTON is a soft usually white fibrous substance composed of the hairs surrounding the seeds of various erect freely branching tropical plants (genus Gossypium) of the mallow family. Tells the story of cotton -- where and how it's grown, processed and woven into cloth -- in simple terms.

Final Thoughts

No one knows exactly how old cotton is. Scientists searching caves in Mexico found bits of cotton bolls and pieces of cotton cloth that proved to be at least 7,000 years old.