As one of the most important cultivated plants, cotton in its natural habitat reaches a height of up to 1.5 meters, while the shrub-like potted cotton variety is content with a much more manageable 50 to 70 centimeters. It displays attractively lobed leaves and, in July and August, beautiful hibiscus-like flowers up to five centimeters in diameter, which are followed by fruit development after another eight weeks. From the black, egg-shaped capsules, which are about the size of a pigeon's egg, emerge the fiber tufts after they burst open – soft as cotton and about the size of a ping-pong ball. Potted cotton is usually an annual, but grows very quickly.
Natural habitat: Cotton originates in South Africa.
