A closer look at a nearby cotton field.
Cotton is a soft, fluffy staple fiber that grows in a boll, or protective case, around the seeds of the cotton plants of the genus Gossypium in the mallow family Malvaceae. The fiber is almost pure cellulose. Under natural conditions, the cotton bolls will increase the dispersal of the seeds.
We’re camped in BLM land a few miles south of I-10 in western Arizona. On our way to or from the campsite, we pass a cotton field (and an alfalfa field) that’s ready for harvest when we arrive. This year, for the first time ever, I stopped alongside it for a closer look before harvest.
It looks to me as if they either cut the water supply or apply a herbicide (as they do to potatoes) after the cotton bolls have formed. As you can see in the first photo, the plants are pretty much dead, although there was some green at the bases of some plants.
A close view of a cotton field.
I stepped into the field and grabbed a cotton boll for a closer look and to share online. I remember seeing cotton bolls like this packaged as souvenirs in tourist shops in the southeast. The cotton felt soft, like a cotton ball. (I don’t know why I found that surprising, but I did.) I knew that deep inside the boll were seeds that had to be removed to use the cotton, but I didn’t tear it apart to find them. I liked its natural look.
A closer look at a cotton boll. I found a tiny yellow spider in the middle of the boll.
I’ll try to get photos of the harvest, but it all depends on if I happen to be driving by when they’re working. I know this field is completely cleared by Christmas every year.
You can learn more about cotton production in the United States, which has a history closely tied with slavery, on Wikipedia.
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I saw fields of cotton, still green, but lots of fluffy whiteness, driving around North Carolna in early October.
I didn’t realize about pickung cotton when the plants had just about died.
I’m not sure if that’s common practice with cotton, but it definitely is for potatoes. Ironically, they use herbicide (!) to kill the plants so it’s easier to get at the tubers below. I’ve never seen this cotton field green; I always arrive in December.