ABSTRACT: Variability for leaf characters viz., petiole length (cm); leaf area (mm 2 ), leaf width (mm), leaf length (mm) and leaf thickness (mm) were studied in cultivation and wild species belong to different genomes A (G. herbaceum and G. arboreum) and B (G. anomalum (B 1 ); D (G. thurberi (D 1 ), G. armourianum (D 2-1 ); G. davidsoni (D 3-d ) G. aridum (D 4 ) G. raimondii (D 5 ); G. trilobum (D 8 ). In addition races of cultivated G. arboreum viz., indicum, bengalensis, sinensis, perennial varieties kudaikotti and punaspatti; and G. hirsutum cotton (races viz., Palmeri, Punctatum, and Morilli, perennial cottons Exotic-3, and Seridov; and G. barbadence perennial cotton 'Kidney Cotton'. Considerable amount of variability was noticed for leaf characters, which can be advantageously exploited for introgression of desirable leaf characters from wild / races / perennial cottons to cultivated cottons. These characters will be useful for developing promising germ plasm lines with marker characters by pre-breeding and handling of segregating material of  cultivated x wild interspecific crosses of Gossypium.