Description

• Gossypium thurberi, commonly known as Thurber’s cotton or wild cotton, is a perennial shrub in the mallow family (Malvaceae). It has slender, branching stems and distinctive leaves divided into several narrow, finger-like lobes. Its flowers are typically pale yellow to cream-coloured, often with a darker reddish or purplish centre, and develop into seed capsules containing seeds covered with short cotton fibres. Unlike cultivated upland cotton (Gossypium hirsutum), this species is a wild cotton adapted to arid environments.

Range

• Gossypium thurberi is native to southern Arizona in the United States and northern Mexico, particularly Sonora and western Chihuahua. Its natural distribution is concentrated in the arid southwestern region of North America, rather than coastal Guerrero.

Habitat

• It grows in arid and semi-arid environments, including rocky hillsides, dry slopes, and banks of seasonal streams. It is adapted to hot, dry conditions and relatively low moisture availability, commonly occurring in open vegetation at moderate elevations.