Gossypium tomentosum

Gossypium tomentosum, commonly known as maʻo, huluhulu 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
Scientific classification Edit this 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]

Cotton boll of Gossypium tomentosum

Native Hawaiians use maʻo flowers to make a yellow dye.[6]

References
  1. "Gossypium tomentosum". Germplasm Resources Information Network. Agricultural Research Service, United States Department of Agriculture. Retrieved 2011-09-09.
  2. "mao, huluhulu". Hawaii Ethnobotany Online Database. Bernice P. Bishop Museum. Retrieved 2011-09-09.
  3. "Gossypium tomentosum". Hawaiian Native Plant Propagation Database. University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa. Retrieved 2009-03-13.
  4. 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.
  5. 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.
  6. Welch, Zoe (27 May 2020). "Making dye from native and canoe plants". Mānoa Heritage Centre. Retrieved 28 October 2022.

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