Wild Cotton, or Upland Cotton, Gossypium hirsutum, is listed as Endangered by the state of Florida. It seemed like a good plant to add to the garden but as I did some research I found out this would not be the case. Reprinted below is an article from the Dade Chapter Newsletter, February, 2009, used with permission.
Summary of information provided to the Tillandsia editor.
In recent years Wild Cotton has been used as a native landscape plant in South Florida. Wild Cotton, or Upland Cotton, (Gossypium hirsutum) is in the Malvaceae, or the Mallow family, which includes hibiscus and many other plants, some native to Florida. According to the Institute for Regional Conservation, it is a leggy shrub inhabiting coastal hammocks and thickets in Florida from Monroe County Keys to Palm Beach and Pinellas counties. It is also found in the West Indies, Mexico, Central America and South America. It has creamy white to pale yellow flowers and is a larval host plant for gray hairstreak butterflies. And it has a fruit that is filled with cotton covering the seeds, just like commercial cotton -- and there's the rub!
Because Wild Cotton is related to commercial cotton, the USDA feared in the early 1900s that it could be infested by the cotton boll weevil (Anthonomus grandis, a native to Central America) and attempted to wipe the plant out of South Florida. However, eradication of Wild Cotton is no longer the goal, and it is listed as endangered by the state of Florida. But control of the boll weevil is still a concern.
Tyson Emery of the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, has explained the situation. Two rules are involved (see http://www.flrules.org).
- "Rule Chapter 5B-40, Preservation of Native Fauna" lists Wild cotton as an endangered plant protected from being taken from the wild. To take plants or parts from the wild, a permit must be issued by DPI.
- "Rule Chapter 5B-52, Boll Weevil Eradication" prohibits the planting of noncommercial cotton in eradiation zones, which include the entire state of Florida. The only exceptions are for research, by written authorization from the Division Director. The Department of Plant Industry (DPI) has several locations that are exempt, usually in displays for public viewing at state and county parks. In these locations, inspectors use boll weevil traps to monitor the plants.
Emery says, "The noncommercial propagation, planting and growing of any species of Gossypium in Florida is prohibited unless under special permit by the Department of Agriculture. This is due to the possibility of the cotton boll weevil becoming established and moving to production areas in North Florida. For Wild Cotton, it is illegal to harvest from another's land without written permission from the land owner and a permit issued by DPI."
In addition, Juileta Brambila, Entomologist with the USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS), Plant Protection and Quarantine in Gainesville, says: "Deep in the Everglades, the Pink Bollworm Moth, Pectinophora gossypiella, a moth pest on commercial cotton fields, occurs ... So, I would not promote using it as a garden plant since it does harbor the moth, can harbor the [boll] weevil, and now it could also harbor, host and spread a lygaeid, the Cottonseed bug, Oxycarenus hyalinipennis, not a good thing. It is definitely a complex issue."
So the bottom line is: get rid of your Wild Cotton plants in the landscape and seeds you have been given, and don't collect cotton from the wild. Just enjoy seeing it on field trips!
Pictures from Wikipedia Commons by user BotBln and Forest and Kim Starr under Creative Commons copyright.