Species
+

Gossypium hirsutum L.

American cotton, American cotton, American upland cotton, American upland cotton

Climate known 72 photographs
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Every figure on this page is derived from public data by a stated rule and says its source; nothing here is written by a person or a model, except the Wikipedia passage, which is quoted and marked as such. How it is made.

Summary

Gossypium hirsutum, also known as upland cotton or Mexican cotton, is the most widely planted species of cotton in the world. Globally, about 90% of all cotton production is of cultivars derived from this species. In the United States, the world's largest exporter of cotton, it constitutes approximately 95% of all cotton production. It is native from Mexico to Ecuador and northeast Brazil, the Leeward Antilles in the Caribbean and the Pacific.

Text from Wikipedia, “Gossypium hirsutum”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written. Kept separate from everything derived here.

About the genus · Gossypium

Gossypium is a genus of flowering plants in the tribe Gossypieae of the mallow family, Malvaceae, from which cotton is harvested. It is native to tropical and subtropical regions of the Old and New Worlds. There are about 50 Gossypium species, making it the largest genus in the tribe Gossypieae, and new species continue to be discovered. More on Wikipedia ›

The opening of Wikipedia, “Gossypium”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written.

Family
Malvaceae
Described by
L.
Native to
Fiji, Samoa, Marquesas +26
Wild records
746 in range· 613 open

At a glance

Warmest month
31°C
May, mean day; nights 24 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
1141mm/yr
11 wet months · peak Sep 202 mm (CHELSA)
Light
28–41DLI
mol/m²/day, winter to summer, open sky (CHELSA shortwave)
In short condensed by rule from the cultivation cards · not written by a person
Rain rule: a summer growing season, June to October in the northern hemisphere (June to October at the habitat, northern). Habitat rain 1141 mm a year, wettest September at 202 mm, driest March at 20 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 28 to 41 mol/m²/day. Cold floor 14.4 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).
Each sentence is one card's own one-line form, written by the same rule as the card (Its year, Rain, Light, Temperature); the note cannot say what a card does not. Months are given for the northern hemisphere (set your site in Settings to change this), and the habitat's own alongside. The cards · the figures.

Also known as Gossypium barbadense var. hirsutum (L.) Hook.fil. & Benth.; Gossypium barbadense var. hirsutum (L.) Triana & Planch.; Gossypium barbadense var. marie-galante (G.Watt) A.Chev.; Gossypium birkinshawii G.Watt; Gossypium caespitosum Tod. and 45 more.

Cultivation

Its year Rain rule: a summer growing season, June to October in the northern hemisphere (June to October at the habitat, northern).

This species’ habitat figures, and what two fixed rules read from them.

The rain rule reads a summer growing season: 70% of the year's rain (853 mm of 1141 mm) falls in June to October, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 26.9 °C against a yearly mean of 25.8 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: December to April.

Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the envelope cells: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve gives a season to reverse. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain Habitat rain 1141 mm a year, wettest September at 202 mm, driest March at 20 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

1141 mm a year at the habitat, 853 mm of it June to October. Wettest month September at 202 mm, driest March at 20 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 662 mm to 2173 mm (10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year) (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the envelope cells. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light Open sky over the habitat: 28 to 41 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 28 to 41 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 23, the highest 90th-percentile month 47).

CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.

Warmth and air Cold floor 14.4 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell is 14.4 °C, the absolute minimum 9.2 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 40.8 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 19.6 °C in January (across the envelope cells 12.3 °C to 23.9 °C), warmest day 30.6 °C in May (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: 14.4 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell (NASA POWER).

NASA POWER daily minima and maxima 1981–2024 at the typical cell, lapse-corrected to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA. The cold floor is the figure named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 59 to 65% across the year (monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the envelope cells.

The figures the cards read from are in Climate below, and where they came from in Natural habitat.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat climate through the yearMean day from 27 °C in Jan to 31 °C in May; mean night from 20 °C in Jan to 24 °C in Jun. The cold quarter, Dec to Feb, is the three months around the coldest night. 1141 mm of rain a year, most in Sep. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 621 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was 9.2 °C and the 99th-percentile day 40.8 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.10°20°30°40°50°40.8° 99th-percentile day (undated)9.2° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400mm rainDLI 28–41RH 59–65 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 621 habitat cells cold quarter: the three months around the coldest night extremes over 44 years at the typical cell, marked at the edge: undated DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C27 / 23–3028 / 24–3129 / 25–3330 / 26–3531 / 27–3530 / 27–3430 / 26–3330 / 27–3429 / 26–3229 / 26–3128 / 25–3027 / 23–30
Night °C20 / 12–2420 / 13–2421 / 15–2423 / 17–2524 / 19–2624 / 19–2624 / 18–2624 / 18–2624 / 18–2623 / 17–2522 / 15–2520 / 13–24
Rain mm32 / 4–8825 / 6–8520 / 4–8333 / 2–12087 / 18–216173 / 35–307169 / 67–299181 / 67–295202 / 81–332128 / 55–26553 / 15–21138 / 7–143
DLI30 / 25–3535 / 29–3939 / 34–4341 / 35–4740 / 32–4737 / 30–4237 / 32–4337 / 33–4134 / 30–3932 / 28–3630 / 25–3428 / 23–33
RH %60 / 55–6560 / 54–6559 / 53–6459 / 53–6661 / 55–6764 / 59–6864 / 59–6965 / 59–6865 / 61–6964 / 59–6962 / 57–6861 / 56–67

Each figure is the median across the 621 grid cells holding the 732 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. Extremes and elevation were read at the typical cell 1460:1803 (16.975, -89.825). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 9.2 °C, 1st-percentile night 14.4 °C, 99th-percentile day 40.8 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Envelope: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 621 distinct grid cells holding the 732 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1460:1803 (its coldest month's mean night nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 17.00_-90.000, lapse-corrected -84 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 117 m (cell mean).

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP; the marker is where the records are densest and decides nothing: the climate was read across every in-range record's cell, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeFiji, Samoa, Marquesas, Society Is., Tuamotu, Marianas, Mexico Central, Mexico Northeast, Mexico Gulf, Mexican Pacific Is., Mexico Northwest, Mexico Southwest, Mexico Southeast, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Aruba, Netherlands Antilles, Southwest Caribbean, Venezuelan Antilles, French Guiana, Guyana, Surinam, Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Brazil Northeast· introduced: Bulgaria, Greece, Italy, Kriti, Romania, Cape Verde, Benin, Burkina, Gambia, The, Ghana, Guinea-Bissau, Mali, Nigeria, Niger, Sierra Leone, Togo, Central African Republic, Cameroon, Gulf of Guinea Is., Zaïre, Chad, Ethiopia, Sudan, Kenya, Tanzania, Angola, Aldabra, Chagos Archipelago, Comoros, Seychelles, Kazakhstan, Tadzhikistan, Uzbekistan, Iraq, Oman, Saudi Arabia, China South-Central, China Southeast, Bangladesh, East Himalaya, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Andaman Is., Myanmar, Nicobar Is., Thailand, Vietnam, New Caledonia, Vanuatu, Hawaii, Illinois, Missouri, Oklahoma, Massachusetts, New York, New Mexico, Texas, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia, Belize, Bahamas, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Haiti, Jamaica, Leeward Is. AB Ant, Puerto Rico, Turks-Caicos Is., Trinidad-Tobago, Windward Is., Brazil West-Central, Brazil Southeast, Brazil North, Brazil South
Kew's description“shrub” · “seasonally dry tropical”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker20.868, -89.719 · in the densest population, 136 records (18% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 746 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 613 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 11 km away. 568 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 14 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km and stay on the map but off the climate.
The map markerthe map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population of the 746 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Gossypium hirsutumGossypium hirsutumGossypium hirsutumGossypium hirsutumGossypium hirsutumGossypium hirsutumGossypium hirsutumGossypium hirsutum

Photographs: (c) Daniel Cahen, some rights reserved (CC BY) (3); (c) Вячеслав Юсупов, some rights reserved (CC BY) (3); no rights reserved · CC0; (c) Stan Shebs, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA).

Photographs: iNaturalist did not answer when this page was built; what is shown came from the sources that did.

Papers naming this species

Works whose title or abstract names Gossypium hirsutum, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

Evolution of Gene Duplication in Plants
Nicholas Panchy, Melissa D. Lehti‐Shiu, Shin‐Han Shiu (2016) · PLANT PHYSIOLOGY
Sequencing of allotetraploid cotton (Gossypium hirsutum L. acc. TM-1) provides a resource for fiber improvement
Tianzhen Zhang, Yan Hu, Wenkai Jiang, Lei Fang (2015) · Nature Biotechnology
Repeated polyploidization of Gossypium genomes and the evolution of spinnable cotton fibres
Andrew H. Paterson, Jonathan F. Wendel, Heidrun Gundlach, Hui Guo (2012) · Nature
Genome sequence of cultivated Upland cotton (Gossypium hirsutum TM-1) provides insights into genome evolution
Fuguang Li, Guangyi Fan, Cairui Lu, Guanghui Xiao (2015) · Nature Biotechnology
The draft genome of a diploid cotton Gossypium raimondii
Kunbo Wang, Zhiwen Wang, Fuguang Li, Wuwei Ye (2012) · Nature Genetics
Determination of the Pore Size of Cell Walls of Living Plant Cells
Nicholas C. Carpita, Dario C. Sabularse, David Montezinos, Deborah P. Delmer (1979) · Science
Genes duplicated by polyploidy show unequal contributions to the transcriptome and organ-specific reciprocal silencing
Keith L. Adams, Richard Cronn, Ryan Percifield, Jonathan F. Wendel (2003) · Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Higher plants contain homologs of the bacterial celA genes encoding the catalytic subunit of cellulose synthase.
Julie R. Pear, Yasuhiro Kawagoe, William E. Schreckengost, Deborah P. Delmer (1996) · Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

Similar habitat climate the 6 species whose habitat climate is nearest this one's: mean day and night, month by month, and rain on a log scale, in calendar order, so a habitat with the same seasons six months out is far, not near. Nothing else counts: not range, not family.

History & registers

Where this page came from built 2026-09-20 · dossier v2 · node
gbif.species answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.synonyms answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.vernacular answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
wcvp.distribution answered
gbif.occurrences answeredGBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.3h4zam
climate answered
wikidata answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
wikipedia answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped
inat.taxon not asked
inat.photos.wild answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped
inat.photos.cultivated nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
commons nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
gbif.media answered
openalex answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped

Every upstream is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, or refused. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 142 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.