Cotton (Gossypium hirsutum)

Cotton, also known as upland cotton or Mexican cotton, is the most widely planted species of cotton in the world; cultivars derived from it account for about 90 percent of global cotton production and about 95 percent of cotton grown in the United States, the world's largest cotton exporter. It is native to a range extending from Mexico to Ecuador and northeast Brazil, the Leeward Antilles in the Caribbean and the Pacific, and like other cotton species it produces a soft fluffy fiber, almost pure cellulose, that grows in a protective boll around its seeds.