Gossypium L.
Contenido
Descripción
Shrubs or trees, usually erect (rarely procumbent, but not in ours), stellate pubescent or glabrate, more or less gland-dotted throughout. Leaves petiolate, the blades ovate, weakly lobed or deeply parted, entire, with one or more abaxial foliar nectaries (rarely absent); stipules subulate to falcate, caducous or persistent, sometimes prominent. Flowers solitary (rarely several) in the leaf axils or in sympodial inflorescences; pedicels usually surmounted by trimerous involucellar nectaries; involucel of 3 bracts that are often cordate, foliaceous, laciniate or dentate (sometimes entire), enclosing the bud and persistent in fruit, the bracts sometimes reduced to linear straps, small scales, or deciduous at anthesis; calyx truncate or 5-dentate (rarely 5-lobed); corolla campanulate or funnelform, usually large and showy, the petals cream, yellow, or rose, sometimes with a dark spot at the base, often gland dotted; androecium included, apically 5-dentate, the anthers numerous; style single with 3-5-decurrent stigmatic lobes, more or less exceeding the androecium. Capsules glabrous (rarely pubescent), often prominently gland-dotted, ovoid, dehiscent, 3-5- loculate; seeds densely lanate (rarely subglabrous). Base chromosome number: x = 13.A
Discusión taxonómica
Gossypium is a genus of ca. 40 species of tropical and subtropical distribution, many of them found in relatively arid areas in Africa and the Middle East, Australia, and North and South America. Several species have been grown for commercial cotton and have been distributed in cultivation far beyond their original homes. In Mexico, three species are cultivated either commercially or in houseyard plantings, and eleven other species occur wild as a part of the indigenous flora.A