Ceiba pentandra

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Ceiba pentandra
Kapok tree Honolulu.jpg
In Honolulu
Scientific classification OOjs UI icon edit-ltr.svg
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Eudicots
Clade: Rosids
Order: Malvales
Family: Malvaceae
Genus: Ceiba
Species:
C. pentandra
Binomial name
Ceiba pentandra
Synonyms [2]
  • Bombax cumanenseKunth
  • Bombax mompoxenseKunth
  • Bombax orientaleSpreng.
  • Bombax pentandrumL.
  • Ceiba caribaea(DC.) A.Chev.
  • Ceiba guineensis(Schumach.) A.Chev.
  • Ceiba occidentalis(Spreng.) Burkill
  • Ceiba thonningiiA.Chev.
  • Eriodendron caribaeum(DC.) G.Don
  • Eriodendron occidentale(Spreng.) G.Don
  • Eriodendron orientaleKostel.
  • Eriodendron pentandrum(L.) Kurz
  • Gossampinus albaBuch.-Ham.
  • Gossampinus rumphiiSchott & Endl.
  • Xylon pentandrum(L.) Kuntze

Ceiba pentandra is a tropical tree of the order Malvales and the family Malvaceae (previously emplaced in the family Bombacaceae), native to Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean, northern South America, and (as the variety C. pentandra var guineensis) West Africa. A somewhat smaller variety has been introduced to South and Southeast Asia, where it is cultivated.

Contents

The tree and the cotton-like fluff obtained from its seed pods are commonly known in English as kapok, a Malay-derived name which originally applied to Bombax ceiba , a native of tropical Asia. [3] In Spanish-speaking countries the tree is commonly known as "ceiba" and in French-speaking countries as fromager. The tree is cultivated for its cottonlike seed fibre, particularly in south-east Asia, and is also known as the Java cotton, Java kapok, silk-cotton or samauma.

Characteristics

Base of giant specimen in eastern Ecuador Ceiba pentranda (17161121825).jpg
Base of giant specimen in eastern Ecuador

The tree grows up to 240 ft (73 m) tall as confirmed by climbing and tape drop [4] with reports of Kapoks up to 77 meters (252 feet) tall. [5] These very large trees are in the Neotropics or tropical Africa. The Southeast Asian form of C. pentandra only reaches ninety feet (27 meters). [6] Trunks can often be up to 3 m (10 ft) in diameter above the extensive buttress roots. The very largest individuals, however, can be 5.8 m (19 ft) thick or more above the buttresses. [7] [8] [9] [10]

The buttress roots can be clearly seen in photographs extending 12 to 15 m (40 to 50 ft) up the trunk of some specimens [11] and extending out from the trunk as much as 20 m (65 ft) and then continuing below ground to a total length of 50 m (165 ft) [12] [13]

The trunk and many of the larger branches are often crowded with large simple thorns. These major branches, usually 4 to 6 in number, can be up to 1.8 m (6 ft) thick [14] [15] and form a crown of foliage as much as 61 m (201 ft) in width. [16] The palmate leaves are composed of 5 to 9 leaflets, each up to 20 cm (8 in) long.

The trees produce several hundred 15 cm (6 in) pods containing seeds surrounded by a fluffy, yellowish fibre that is a mix of lignin and cellulose.

The referenced reports make it clear that C. pentandra is among the largest trees in the world.

Uses

The commercial tree is most heavily cultivated in the rainforests of Asia, notably in Java (hence one of its common names), the Philippines, Malaysia, and Hainan Island in China, as well as in South America.

The flowers are an important source of nectar and pollen for honey bees and bats.

Bats are the primary pollinators of the night-blooming flowers.

Native tribes along the Amazon River harvest the fibre to wrap around their blowgun darts. The fibres create a seal that allows the pressure to force the dart through the tube.

The fiber is light, very buoyant, resilient, resistant to water, but very flammable. The process of harvesting and separating the fiber is labor-intensive and menial. It is difficult to spin, but is used as an alternative to down as filling in mattresses, pillows, upholstery, zafus, and stuffed toys such as teddy bears, and for insulation. It was previously popularly used in life jackets and similar devices - until synthetic materials largely replaced the fiber. The seeds produce an oil that is used locally in soap and which can also be used as fertilizer.

Traditional medicinal uses

Ceiba pentandra bark decoction has been used as a diuretic, as an aphrodisiac, and to treat headache, as well as type II diabetes. It is used as an additive in some versions of the psychedelic drink Ayahuasca.[ citation needed ]

Seed oil

A vegetable oil can be pressed from the seeds. The oil has a yellow colour and a pleasant, mild odour and taste, [17] resembling cottonseed oil. It becomes rancid quickly when exposed to air. Kapok oil is produced in India, Indonesia and Malaysia. It has an iodine value of 85–100; this makes it a nondrying oil, which means that it does not dry out significantly when exposed to air. [17] The oil has some potential as a biofuel and in paint preparation.

Religion and folklore

The tree is a sacred symbol in Maya mythology. [18]

It is a sacred tree in Palo, Arará and Santería. [19] [20]

According to the folklore of Trinidad and Tobago, the Castle of the Devil is a huge C. pentandra growing deep in the forest in which Bazil the demon of death was imprisoned by a carpenter. The carpenter tricked the devil into entering the tree in which he carved seven rooms, one above the other, into the trunk. Folklore claims that Bazil still resides in that tree. [21]

Most masks from Burkina Faso, especially those of Bobo and Mossi people, are carved from C. pentandra timber. [22]

Symbolism

Ceiba pentandra is the national emblem of Guatemala, [18] Puerto Rico, [23] and Equatorial Guinea. It appears on the coat of arms and flag of Equatorial Guinea. [24]

The Cotton Tree was a landmark in downtown Freetown, Sierra Leone, and is considered a symbol of freedom for the former slaves that immigrated there. The 70-metre-tall trunk snapped near the base, and fell in a storm on 24 May 2023. [25]

Saigon, one of a number of older names for Ho Chi Minh City, may be derived from Sài (Sino-Vietnamese "palisade" etc.) and the Vietnamese name for the Kapok tree (bông) gòn, although, in this instance, the tree intended to be named may well be, not the New World Ceiba pentandra, but the Old World Bombax ceiba .

See also

Related Research Articles

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The Malvales are an order of flowering plants. As circumscribed by APG II-system, the order includes about 6000 species within nine families. The order is placed in the eurosids II, which are part of the eudicots.

<i>Ceiba</i> Genus of plants

Ceiba is a genus of trees in the family Malvaceae, native to tropical and subtropical areas of the Americas and tropical West Africa. Some species can grow to 70 m (230 ft) tall or more, with a straight, largely branchless trunk that culminates in a huge, spreading canopy, and buttress roots that can be taller than a grown person. The best-known, and most widely cultivated, species is Kapok, Ceiba pentandra, one of several trees known as kapok. Ceiba is a word from the Taíno language meaning "boat" because Taínos use the wood to build their dugout canoes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bombacaceae</span> Family of flowering plants

Bombacaceae were long recognised as a family of flowering plants or Angiospermae. The family name was based on the type genus Bombax. As is true for many botanical names, circumscription and status of the taxon has varied with taxonomic point of view, and currently the preference is to transfer most of the erstwhile family Bombacaceae to the subfamily Bombacoideae within the family Malvaceae in the order Malvales. The rest of the family were transferred to other taxa, notably the new family Durionaceae. Irrespective of current taxonomic status, many of the species originally included in the Bombacaceae are of considerable ecological, historical, horticultural, and economic importance, such as balsa, kapok, baobab and durian.

<i>Bombax</i> Genus of flowering plants

Bombax is a genus of mainly tropical trees in the mallow family. They are native to western Africa, the Indian subcontinent, Southeast Asia, and the subtropical regions of East Asia and northern Australia. It is distinguished from the genus Ceiba, which has whiter flowers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mongoose lemur</span> Species of lemur

The mongoose lemur is a small primate in the family Lemuridae, native to Madagascar and introduced to the Comoros Islands. These arboreal animals have pointed faces, long, bushy tails, dark-brown upper parts, pale bellies, and beards, which are reddish in males and white in females. They live in family groups and feed primarily on fruit, but also eat leaves, flowers, and nectar, with nectar from Ceiba pentandra trees making up a large part of their diet during the dry season. They have declined sharply in numbers because of habitat destruction and hunting, and the International Union for Conservation of Nature has rated their conservation status as "critically endangered".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Buttress root</span> Large, wide roots on all sides of a shallowly rooted tree

Buttress roots, also known as plank roots, are large, wide roots on all sides of a shallowly rooted tree. Typically, they are found in nutrient-poor tropical forest soils that may not be very deep. They may prevent the tree from falling over.

<i>Ceiba speciosa</i> Species of tree

Ceiba speciosa, the floss silk tree, is a species of deciduous tree that is native to the tropical and subtropical forests of South America. It has several local common names, such as palo borracho, or árbol del puente, samu'ũ, or paineira. In Bolivia, it is called toborochi, meaning "tree of refuge" or "sheltering tree". In the USA it often is called the silk floss tree. It belongs to the same family as the baobab; the species Bombax ceiba; and other kapok trees. Another tree of the same genus, Ceiba chodatii, is often referred to by the same common names.

Cotton tree may refer to:

<i>Bombax ceiba</i> Species of tree

Bombax ceiba, like other trees of the genus Bombax, is commonly known as cotton tree. More specifically, it is sometimes known as Malabar silk-cotton tree; red silk-cotton; red cotton tree; or ambiguously as silk-cotton or kapok, both of which may also refer to Ceiba pentandra.

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<i>Adansonia suarezensis</i> Species of flowering plant

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<i>Bombax buonopozense</i> Species of tree

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cotton Tree (Sierra Leone)</span> Tree in Freetown, Sierra Leone

The Cotton Tree was a kapok tree that was a historic symbol of Freetown, the capital city of Sierra Leone. The Cotton Tree gained importance in 1792 when a group of formerly enslaved African Americans, who had gained their freedom by fighting for the British during the American Revolutionary War, settled the site of modern Freetown. These former Black Loyalist soldiers, also known as Black Nova Scotians, resettled in Sierra Leone and founded Freetown on 11 March 1792. The descendants of the Nova Scotian settlers form part of the Sierra Leone Creole ethnicity today.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Parque de la Ceiba</span> Park in San Antón, Ponce, Puerto Rico

Parque de la Ceiba is a passive park in sector Cuatro Calles of barrio San Antón, Ponce, Puerto Rico. Its centerpiece is the historic Ceiba pentandra, a tree associated with the founding of the city. Now surrounded by the park with the same name, the emblematic 500-year-old Ceiba tree stands on the edge of the Ponce Historic Zone. The park opened in 1984, under the administration of Mayor Jose Dapena Thompson. A sign on the fence that surrounds the tree identifies its species as Ceiba pentandra.

Kapok fibre is a cotton-like plant fibre obtained from the seed pods of a number of trees in the Malvaceae family, which is used for stuffing mattresses and pillows, for padding and cushioning, and as

<i>Ceiba chodatii</i> Species of tree

Ceiba chodatii, the floss silk tree, is a species of deciduous tree native to the tropical and subtropical forests of South America. It has a bottle-shaped swollen trunk in which water is stored for the dry season and is known locally as palo borracho.

Kapok, or Kapok fibre, also known as ceiba and Java cotton, is the fine fibres from the fruit of the kapok tree Ceiba pentandra in the bombax family Bombacaceae.

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References

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