Sea Island Cotton

G. barbadense, like other cottons, forms a small bush in its first year. In cultivation, it is treated as an annual. If allowed to, it can grow into a large bush or even a small tree of height 1–3 m. Leaves are mostly 8–20 cm long, with 3-7 lobes. One distinction between G. barbadense and the more commonly cultivated G. hirsutum is that G. barbadense has three to five lobes whereas G. hirsutum has only three. The lobes of G. barbadense's are also more deeply cut, about two-thirds the length of the leaf, as opposed to one half for G. hirsutum. Cotton flowers are showy, with five petals that open only partially. The petals are up to 8 cm long, usually yellow. The petals of Sea Island cultivars typically are creamy yellow with a red spot at the base, and as they wither, they turn rose pink. Like other members of the mallow family, the flowers have many stamens, which are merged to form a cylinder around the style. The seeds and fiber form in a capsule called a "bole". Each bole is divided into three parts, each of which produce 5-8 seeds. The seeds are 8-10 mm long. Thousands of years of cultivation have dramatically changed the fiber in cotton plants. Wild cottons have very little fiber, so little it might not be noticed. The fiber emanates from each seed. The purpose of the fiber to wild plants is unknown. Domesticated cottons have much more fiber. …

G. barbadense grows in dry portions of the tropics, where it is a perennial. Treated as an annual, and with the benefit of irrigation, it can be cultivated quite successfully in arid subtropical regions. Human activity has substantially expanded the range of the species. Today, wild populations exhibit the most genetic diversity in Ecuador and Peru, and based on this, Percy and Wendel argue that region is where the species originated (see Vavilov center). S.G. Stephens and M.E. Mosely narrowed this to a small area near the Guayas Estuary in Ecuador and an island off of Manta, Ecuador, as that is where the forms with the most wild characteristics are found. From there, it dispersed. Its natural range is dry habitats from the western South American coast to the intermontaine valleys of the northern Andes to riverine northern South America. By the time Columbus encountered it being cultivated in the Caribbean, its range included much of tropical South and Central America. G. barbadense is now cultivated around the world, including China, Egypt, Sudan, India, Australia, Peru, Israel, the southwestern United States, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan.

Most G. barbadense production comes from cultivars that produce particularly long fiber, and most of that is made into clothing. Fine (thin) yarn requires long fiber. In turn, this thin yarn is required for intermediate products like lace and high thread-count cloth. The long-fiber cultivars also tend to have particularly strong fibers, making them useful for various industrial products. Historically, G. barbadense has been used for the cords of automobile tires and cloth for aircraft wings. It is also used for sewing machine thread. G. barbadense fiber is also used for some luxury goods where the fiber qualities are less important than the reputation of the best quality materials. Some growers have established trademarks for yarn or finished items made of G. barbadense fiber. Caribbean producers banded together in 1933 to form the West Indian Sea Island Cotton Association. The organization allows makers of yarn and finished goods to use the “WISICA” trademark, provided the items are made from Sea Island of the Caribbean cotton and meet certain quality requirements. Likewise, a group of southwestern United States growers established the trademark Supima for products made of American Pima fiber. Small quantities of Tanguis and other short-fibered cultivars are grown for specialized purposes. G. barbadense can be used as a source of cottonseed oil and animal feed. …

The species accounts for about 5% of the world's cotton production. Certain regions specialize in G. barbadense. One reason is to prevent different species of cotton from hybridizing with each other. If a field of G. barbadense is too close to a field of a different species, the result is generally poor quality of the fiber. In historical times, G. barbadense was mostly a dooryard crop and treated as a perennial. Individual households would maintain one or a few bushes for years at a time. This form of cultivation continues to a small extent to the present. However, nearly all cotton production, G. barbadense or otherwise, are now row crops and treated as an annual. Plants are grown from seed each year.

Linnaeus is given credit for describing Gossypium barbadense ("the cotton encountered in Barbados"). Today, this name is universally accepted; however, there is some question whether the modern definition matches what Linnaeus described. Paul A. Fryxell argues, although the evidence surviving from Linnaeus's time is less than ideal, the name is applied correctly. On the other hand, Y. I. Prokhanov and G. K. Brizicky argue that Linnaeus never actually saw any examples of the species we now call G. barbadense. The species is a member of the mallow family, Malvaceae. Authors differ on the ranks between family and genus. A recent example that considers cladistics is Bayer et al. (1999). In this system, G. barbadense and other cottons fall in the subfamily Malvoideae and tribe Gossypiae. The tribe Gossypiae includes cotton species and others that produce the substance gossypol. The genus Gossypium encompasses the cottons. The genus can be divided by chromosome count. Subgenus Karpas has 52 chromosomes (four sets of 13). This subgenus encompasses G. barbadense, along with G. hirsutum and a few other New World cottons. In comparison, the commercially important Old World cottons have 26 chromosomes. Most botanists who study Gossypium believe that the group of cottons with 52 chromosomes forms a clade. In other words, G. barbadense, G. …