Gossypium arboreum, commonly called tree cotton, is a species of cotton native to Indian subcontinent and other tropical and subtropical regions of the Old World. There is evidence of its cultivation as long ago as the Indus Valley Civilisation of the Indus River for the production of cotton textiles. The shrub was included in Linnaeus's Species Plantarum published in 1753. The holotype was also supplied by him, which is now in the Linnean Herbarium in the Swedish Museum of Natural History.
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👉 Gossypium arboreum in the context of Phuti carpus
Phuti karpas or phuti karpash, is a variety of Gossypium arboreum endemic to Bangladesh, especially near Dhaka along the river banks. It was believed to be extinct. The cotton from this plant was used to make Dhaka muslin, a rare extinct fabric. It could be spun so that individual threads could maintain tensile strength at counts higher than any other variety of cotton. In 2015, in a project to resurrect muslin, phuti karpas plants are being searched by planting similar plants along the river.
In this Dossier
- ⭐ Core Definition: Gossypium arboreum
- 👉 Gossypium arboreum in the context of Phuti carpus
- Gossypium arboreum in the context of Muslin trade in Bengal
Gossypium arboreum in the context of Muslin trade in Bengal
Muslin, a Phuti carpus cotton fabric of plain weave, was historically hand woven in the areas of Dhaka and Sonargaon in Bangladesh and exported for many centuries. The region forms the eastern part of the historic region of Bengal. The muslin trade at one time made the Ganges delta and what is now Bangladesh into one of the most prosperous parts of the world. Of all the unique elements that must come together to manufacture muslin, none is as unique as the cotton, the famous "phuti karpas", scientifically known as Gossypium arboreum var. neglecta. Dhaka muslin was immensely popular and sold across the globe for millennia. Muslin from "India" is mentioned in the book Periplus of the Erythraean Sea, authored by an anonymous Egyptian merchant around 2,000 years ago; it was appreciated by the Ancient Greeks and Romans, and the fabled fabric was the pinnacle of European fashion in the 18th and 19th century. Production ceased sometime in the late 19th century, as the Bengali muslin industry could no longer compete against cheaper British-made textiles.
View the full Wikipedia page for Muslin trade in Bengal