I have some ... what I was told was San Marcos Hibiscus (sprawling shrub with yellow flowers) turned out to be what looks more like wild cotton (tall shrub, white flowers with pink dots, leaves turn brilliant red).

I'm not anywhere near the seeds I saved, but I can send you some when I'm back in Phoenix.

It's easy to grow ... just needs hot weather and reliable water supply to get it going. (it outgrew my okra, which is saying a LOT)

Out of curiosity, what's the use for this plant?

Thanks "lazygardens". From your description, this is what I'm looking for and will send a P.M. to you.

In answer to your question "tomatofreak", it's a southern Arizona native and is grown as a curiosity. It has a nice flower and oddly enough, doesn't produce cotton fibers as other members in the cotton family do.

I'm growing another obscure cotton plant, gossypium barbadense, common name Creole cotton. It's a large tree-type from tropical South America and produces long fiber cotton. I have plenty of seeds if anybody is interested.

The images I found for gossypium barbadense are quite pretty. Does the plant grow big enough to shade smaller plants, e.g., those in containers? I'm curious enough to try growing it if you'd be kind enough to provide some instruction. First of all, is it too late in season to plant seeds?

I grew this for several years but finally ripped it out last year. It's a nice shrubby plant with actually fairly decent autumn color. You can train it as a small tree-ish thing (although staking helps since the branches stay fairly supple). Mine did great for several years, I just didn't pick a good spot for it design-wise. If you're in the Valley, you could check with the wonderful Shady Way Gardens nursery out in Apache Junction, that's where I bought mine and they usually carry some. Mine looks horrible the first year (stressed from life in a container) but was really nice the years afterwards. It grows wild in the hills around Tucson. On my last hike up in Ventana Canyon there was a ton in bloom.

Happy hunting and gardening all,
Grant

Here is a link that might be useful: Shady Way Gardens nursery