Tropicals > Ceiba > Ceiba pentandra > Ceiba pentandra
Ceiba pentandra
Java Cotton, Java Kapok, Silk Cotton
| Family |
| Malvaceae |
| Genus |
| Ceiba |
| Species |
| pentandra |
| Category |
| Tropicals |
| Synonyms |
| Bombax pentandrum |
| Height |
| 50-70 m |
| Spread |
| 3 m trunk diameter |
Photographs
Cultivars
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Description and Growing Information
Flowering Period
| Habitat |
| Mexico |
| Leaf Description |
| The leaves are compound of 5-9 leaflets, each up to 20 cm and palmate. |
| Flower Description |
| Flowers usually open before the leaves appear, and are clustered on small, new branches. The 5 petals of a flower are about 2.5 cm long and are a creamy white or pale pink in colour. Their odor is unpleasant, but attracts bats that pollinate them. |
| Fruit Description |
| Adult trees produce several hundred 15 cm seed pods filled with round brown seeds. The pods are woody, smooth and pendulous, with a light green colour. They will burst open while still on the tree after the leaves have fallen. Inside is a whitish cotton material called kapok. |
| Ethnobotanical Uses (Disclaimer) |
| The fibre from the seed pods finds many uses as it resembles a cotton type stuffing material that does not adsorb water. Thus it has been used in old style life vests and even today as the stuffing in pillows and mattresses in countr such as Thailand. |
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