Upland cotton (Gossypium hirsutum)

Gossypium hirsutum is upland cotton, the New World species that now supplies most of the world’s cotton and nearly all of India’s irrigated cotton fields. Hindi farmers call it American kapas to tell it apart from the old desi tree cotton, Gossypium arboreum. Almost every Bt cotton hybrid sown in India since 2002 belongs to this species. The fibre is the crop; the seed gives cooking oil and cattle cake.

Botanical name: Gossypium hirsutum L.
Family: Malvaceae
Tamil: American paruthi
Hindi: American kapas
Parts used: Lint, Seed oil
Habit: New-World cotton; English cotton is a shop word
Last updated: 2026-10-27

How to recognise Upland cotton

It is a bushy shrub grown as an annual, usually waist- to shoulder-high, with hairy stems and broad leaves cut into three to five shallow lobes. The species name hirsutum means hairy.

The large cup-shaped flowers open cream or pale yellow in the morning and turn pink to red by the next day before they fall.

Three large, deeply toothed bracts wrap each flower and later the green boll, which splits into three to five segments to release the white lint.

Upland lint is longer than desi cotton lint and the seeds stay covered in a short grey fuzz after ginning, called linters.

Desi tree cotton is often perennial and grows in rain-fed fields, while upland cotton is usually an irrigated or monsoon annual sown in rows.

Traditional use of Upland cotton

Fibre

Gins separate lint from seed, mills spin the lint into yarn, and the short linters go into paper, absorbent cotton and cellulose products.

Indian textile practice

Kitchen

Refined cottonseed oil is a common cooking and vanaspati oil, and the pressed seed cake is fed to cattle.

Indian oil-mill practice

Farming

Maharashtra, Gujarat and Telangana grow the largest areas, mostly as a kharif crop sown with the monsoon and picked by hand from October onwards.

Indian farm practice

Modern notes on Upland cotton

Bt cotton carries genes from the soil bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis that make the plant toxic to bollworm caterpillars. India approved it in 2002 and it soon covered most of the cotton area.

Pink bollworm has since evolved resistance to the Bt proteins in many Indian districts, so pest control is again a major cost for farmers.

The seed contains gossypol, a yellow compound that protects the plant from insects. Refining removes it from the oil, but it limits how much seed cake pigs and poultry can eat.

Gossypol was tested in China in the 1970s as a male contraceptive but was dropped because of low potassium and lasting infertility in some men.

Upland cotton safety

Do not eat raw cottonseed or unrefined oil because of gossypol. Long exposure to cotton dust in gins and mills can cause byssinosis, a lung disease, so workers need masks and ventilation.

Ecology and sourcing

It was domesticated in Mexico around five thousand years ago and spread worldwide after 1800.

Its leaves and bracts carry small nectar glands that feed ants and wasps, which in turn attack some pests.

Honeybees forage heavily in flowering cotton fields, so insecticide sprays can harm hives nearby.

Related plants

Also in Malvaceae

Questions about Upland cotton

Is Upland cotton the same as desi cotton?

No. Desi or tree cotton is Gossypium arboreum, an older Asian species with shorter lint.

Is Bt cotton a different plant?

No. Bt hybrids are upland cotton with added insect-resistance genes.

Why do the flowers change colour?

They open cream and turn pink or red after pollination, usually by the second day.

Can cottonseed be eaten?

Only as refined oil. Raw seed contains gossypol and is not a food.

What are linters?

The short fuzz left on seed after ginning, used for paper, cotton wool and cellulose.

Sources

Educational page about a plant. It is not medical advice, not a diagnosis, and not an offer to sell. Traditional use is historical. If you need care, ask a licensed clinician. Questions: hello@meevamed.com.