Question

Cotton belongs to the family
A) Solanaceae
B) Leguminosae
C) Cucurbitaceae
D) Malvaceae

Answer 1

Cotton is a natural fibre yielding plant that belongs to genus Gossypium. It is a very important economical crop. It is also used for producing oil seeds and is also a great source of protein so used as animal feed.

Complete answer:

Solanaceae: It is the family of potatoes. It is widely distributed in tropics, subtropics and even in temperate zones.The family is represented by 90 genera and 2800 species distributed in both tropical and temperate regions.The plants are annual or perennial herbs, shrubs and rarely soft wooded trees.
The plants of this family are used for various purposes like- potato, brinjal and tomato are used as food, various medicinal plants like Atropa belladonna, Withania, etc, are also obtained from this family.
Leguminosae:This family is now known as fabaceae and it is distributed all over the world. It has around 600 genera and 13000 species of plants.The plants are mostly herbs, however shrubs and trees are also common.Various pulses and vegetables like gram, pea, beans, soybeans, etc. are obtained from this family.The plants of this family are also great sources of edible oils, timber, dye and fodder.
Cucurbitaceae: It is also known as gourd family and it consists of around 95 genera and 965 species of plants.The plants are common in temperate and tropical areas.It includes mostly vines, shrubs, lianas but trees are also found.The plants of this family produce various edible fruits like pumpkin, squash, watermelon, cucumber, etc.
Malvaceae :The family is also called mallows and it includes around 244 genera and 4225 species of plants.Okra, cotton, Hibiscus, etc, belong to this family.

Hence the correct answer is option ‘D’.

Note: Family is one of the important hierarchical taxonomic ranks that comes after order and before genus. All the genus having similar characters come under a single family