Is Cotton a Flowering Plant?
- The flower of the cotton plant is the famous image most people think of when discussing the product -- the collection of white, fluffy fiber and seeds that form into a rounded sac and perches along the branch of the plant. That flower is harvested, endures the process of seed removal, and is then transformed into the product contained in cloth.
- Cotton flowers begin with small buds that are referred to as "squares." The University of Missouri Extension Service indicates that the bud is enclosed by three bracts, and the squares grow for approximately 21 days prior to the appearance of a bloom. Each branch repeats this process, producing several squares along the appendage.
- When the cotton flower initially begins to open, the petals put forth a creamy white or yellow color. "They are narrow at the base and broad at the tip. The petals darken, usually to a dark pink at the end of the first day," says the Division of Biological Sciences at the University of California at Davis.
