Scientifically here are four
commercially grown species of cotton, all domesticated in antiquity:
- Gossypium hirsutum – upland cotton, native to Central America, Mexico, the Caribbean and southern Florida, (90% of world production)
- Gossypium barbadense – known as extra-long staple cotton, native to tropical South America (8% of world production)
- Gossypium arboreum – tree cotton, native to India and Pakistan (less than 2%)
- Gossypium herbaceum – Levant cotton, native to southern Africa and the Arabian Peninsula (less than 2%)
The two New World cotton species
account for the vast majority of modern cotton production, but the two Old
World species were widely used before the 1900s. While cotton fibers occur
naturally in colors of white, brown, pink and green, fears of contaminating the
genetics of white cotton have led many cotton-growing locations to ban the
growing of colored cotton varieties, which remain a specialty product.
