The cotton plant will grow up to 6m high and is growing worldwide in tropical and suptropical regions including America, Africa and India. The flowers resemble Hibiscus, both belong to the same plant family called mallows. The Cotton fibers surround the fruits and help in distributing the seeds over a wide range. Cotton has been domesticated in the Old and New World independently.

The fibers can be up to 30mm long and consist of cellulose. They are used for fabric and textiles since ancient times. The fibers can take up a lot of water, but dry slowly.Typical cotton fibers are flat, twisted or looped. As a byproduct, oil is pressed from the seeds which can be used for food after refining.

Some information in this copy may have been obtained from the online resource: Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia.

Learn more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cotton