Today I planted ma’o or Hawaiian cotton. It’s an endemic plant related to regular cotton except this one has short reddish brown hairs so it can’t be spun into string. The Hawaiians mostly used the flowers to make a green dye for kapa making.
The Hawaiian cotton actually saved the US cotton industry at one point when it was hybridized with commercial cotton to make a more pest resistant variety. Otherwise we would all be wearing polyester and wool socks all day.
Originally posted on 2021-09-13, part of the daily planting journal behind Ha’a Chocolate’s food forest on Hawai’i Island.