Arizona Wild Cotton Blossom — Image by kenne
Arizona wild cotton (Gossypium thurberi) is a deciduous shrub with a lovely fall color. Also called desert cotton and
Mt. Lemmon cotton, this shrub can grow up to 10 feet tall by 4 feet wide. It has beautiful creamy white summer flowers,
and its palate leaves turn yellow and red in the fall before they fall off, and the plant goes dormant.
Thurber’s Wild Cotton Blossoms (Sabino Canyon Recreation Area) — Photo-Artistry by kenne
— James Thurber
Thurber’s Cotton with Bee (Sabino Canyon) — Photo-Artistry by kenne
The cup-shaped flowers are 1 1/2 inches (3.8 cm) wide and have 5 broad, white petals that fade to pink as they age.
The petals are either solid white or streaked with pink at the base. The flowers are followed by round, green seed capsules that dry
to a brown color and split open to reveal the seeds and only a few, sparse cotton fibers. This plant is related to cultivated cotton,
but its cotton is too paltry for commercial use. The leaves are green and palmately lobed with 3 or 5 point-tipped lobes.
The leaves turn a bright red color in the fall (around late October). Source: fireflyforest.com
Thurber’s Cotton (Gossypium thurberi) or Desert Cotton — Image on Mt. Lemmon by kenne (09/25/14)
Desert Cotton (Thurber’s Cotton) Fall Colors
Desert Cotton (Thurber’s Cotton) Late Summer — Images by kenne
kenne
Thurber’s Cotton (Desert Cotton) — Image by kenne
