Gossypium tomentosum
Gossypium tomentosum, commonly known as Maʻo or Hawaiian cotton, is a species of cotton plant that is endemic to the Hawaiian Islands. It inhabits low shrublands at elevations from sea level to 120 m (390 ft).[2] Maʻo is a shrub that reaches a height of 1.5–5 ft (0.46–1.52 m) and a diameter of 5–10 ft (1.5–3.0 m).[3] The seed hairs (lint) are short and reddish brown, unsuitable for spinning or twisting into thread.
Gossypium tomentosum | |
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Scientific classification | |
Kingdom: | Plantae |
Clade: | Tracheophytes |
Clade: | Angiosperms |
Clade: | Eudicots |
Clade: | Rosids |
Order: | Malvales |
Family: | Malvaceae |
Genus: | Gossypium |
Subgenus: | G. subg. Karpas |
Species: | G. tomentosum |
Binomial name | |
Gossypium tomentosum | |
Genetic studies indicate that Hawaiian cotton is related to American species of Gossypium, with its closest relative Gossypium hirsutum.[4] Its ancestor may have come to the islands from the Americas as a seed on the wind or in the droppings of a bird, or as part of floating debris.[5]
References
- "Gossypium tomentosum". Germplasm Resources Information Network (GRIN). Agricultural Research Service (ARS), United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). Retrieved 2011-09-09.
- "mao, huluhulu". Hawaii Ethnobotany Online Database. Bernice P. Bishop Museum. Retrieved 2011-09-09.
- "Gossypium tomentosum". Hawaiian Native Plant Propagation Database. University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa. Retrieved 2009-03-13.
- Small, R. L.; Ryburn, J. A.; Cronn, R. C.; Seelanan, T.; Wendel, J. F. (1 September 1998). "The Tortoise and the Hare: Choosing between Noncoding Plastome and Nuclear Adh Sequences for Phylogeny Reconstruction in a Recently Diverged Plant Group". American Journal of Botany. American Journal of Botany, Vol. 85, No. 9. 85 (9): 1301–1315. doi:10.2307/2446640. ISSN 0002-9122. JSTOR 2446640. PMID 21685016.
- DeJoode, Daniel R.; Wendel, Jonathan F. (November 1992). "Genetic Diversity and Origin of the Hawaiian Islands Cotton, Gossypium tomentosum". American Journal of Botany. American Journal of Botany, Vol. 79, No. 11. 79 (11): 1311–1319. doi:10.2307/2445059. JSTOR 2445059.
Gossypium tomentosum is proposed, based on biogeographic evidence and molecular data, to have originated by transoceanic dispersal from a Mesoamerican progenitor.
External links
- Gossypium tomentosum (ma'o) information from the Hawaiian Ecosystems at Risk project (HEAR)
- Gossypium tomentosum (ma'o) images from Forest & Kim Starr