 |
 |
 |
 |
 ABOUTfeatured: 30 Best Snorkeling Blogs Fun Ways to enjoy the caribbeanJan 24, 12 Comments Off
Good morning friends, here’s another flower from the same cotton plant, Gossypium hirsutum that I sent you a few weeks ago, except this one is light yellow. These are growing wild and out of control behind the Curacao Sea Aquarium. Gossypium hirsutum is a soft, fluffy, staple fiber that grows in a form known as a boll around the seeds of the cotton plant, a shrub native to tropical and subtropical regions around the world, including the Americas, India and Africa. The fiber most often is spun into yarn or thread and used to make a soft, breathable textile, that is a most widely used natural-fiber in clothing today. Through genetic assistance and breeding, today’s cottons have evolved from these “wild” sources and are more processing friendly. Currently, there are five prominent types of cotton being grown commercially around the world: Egyptian, Sea Island, American Pima, Asiatic and Upland. In addition to the textile industry, cotton is in fishnets, coffee filters, tents, gunpowder (see Nitrocellulose), cotton paper, and in bookbinding. The cottonseed which remains after the cotton is ginned is used to produce cottonseed oil, which, after refining, can be consumed by humans like any other vegetable oil. The cottonseed meal that is left generally is fed to ruminant livestock. Cottonseed hulls can be added to dairy cattle rations for roughage. The top leading producers of cotton are China, India, US, Pakistan and Egypt. The five leading exporters of cotton are (1) the United States, (2) India, (3) Uzbekistan, (4) Brazil, and (5) Australia. The cotton plant is grown from seed and usually bears fruit or bolls in about 100 days after planting. Around 45 days after, the cotton boll will begin to naturally split open along the bolls segments or carpels and dry out, exposing the underlying cotton segments called locks. An average boll will contain nearly 500,000 fibers of cotton and each plant may bear up to 100 bolls.
Since it rained almost all day yesterday I took the day off and completed a ton of little jobs that really had to get finished. I first photographed a new snail I found in the driveway and again in doing so got stung not once but twice in the arm by hornets that were nesting in nearby bush. My arm was super swollen all day yesterday and is still a bit puffy this morning. I then spent at least two hours trying to finish my new driftwood creation that will be a gift for a friends new house, boy is it heavy, I bet it weighs close to 200 pounds! At 6:00 I had a meeting at Carmabi, that’s our local “coral research”/ “coral protection” agency here in Curacao and they really do a pretty good job. I went there asking for help and advise in moving some corals that must be moved soon in front of a new development and they were very helpful.
That’s it for me today, not a whole lot going on, hope all is well out there! Be back soon, Barry
SITE MAP
CategoriesArchives |
|
