Gossypium tomentosum
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| Gossypium tomentosum |
Maʻo or Hawaiian cotton (Gossypium tomentosum) is a species of cotton plant that is endemic to the Hawaiian Islands. It inhabits low shrublands at elevations from sea level to 120 metres (390 ft).[1] Maʻo is a shrub that reaches a height of 1.5–5 feet (0.46–1.5 m) and a diameter of 5–10 feet (1.5–3.0 m).[2] The seed hairs (lint) are short and reddish brown, unsuitable for spinning or twisting into thread.
Genetic studies indicate that Hawaiian cotton is intermediate between the two major native American species, Gossypium hirsutum and Gossypium barbadense and that its ancestor may have come to the islands from the Americas, approximately 500 year ago, as a seed on the wind or in the droppings of a bird, or as part of floating debris.[3]
[edit] References
- ^ "mao, huluhulu". Hawaii Ethnobotany Online Database. Bernice P. Bishop Museum. http://www2.bishopmuseum.org/ethnobotanydb/resultsdetailed.asp?search=mao_G. Retrieved on 2009-03-13.
- ^ "Gossypium tomentosum". Hawaiian Native Plant Propagation Database. University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa. http://www2.hawaii.edu/~eherring/hawnprop/gos-tome.htm. Retrieved on 2009-03-13.
- ^ DeJoode, Daniel R.; Wendel, Jonathan F. (November 1992). "Genetic Diversity and Origin of the Hawaiian Islands Cotton, Gossypium tomentosum". American Journal of Botany 79 (11): pp. 1311–1319. doi:. http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0002-9122%28199211%2979%3A11%3C1311%3AGDAOOT%3E2.0.CO%3B2-G&size=LARGE#abstract. Retrieved on 2007-05-16. "Gossypium tomentosum is proposed, based on biogeographic evidence and molecular data, to have originated by transoceanic dispersal from a Mesoamerican progenitor.".
[edit] Additional information
- Gossypium tomentosum (ma'o) information from the Hawaiian Ecosystems at Risk project (HEAR)
- Gossypium tomentosum (ma'o) images from Forest & Kim Starr
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