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,
This Asian tropical tree has a straight tall trunk and its leaves are deciduous in winter. Red flowers with 5 petals appear in the spring before the new foliage.
Description
Bombax ceiba grows to an average of 20 meters, with old trees up to 60 meters in wet tropical regions. The trunk and limb bear numerous conical spines particularly when young, but get eroded when older. The leaves are palmate with about 6 leaflets radiating from a central point (tip of petiole), an average of wide, in length. The leaf's long flexible petiole is up to long.
Cup-shaped flowers solitary or clustered, axillary or sub-terminal, fascicles at or near the ends of the branches, when the tree is bare of leaves, an average of wide, in width, petals up to in length, calyx is cup-shaped usually 3 lobed, an average of in diameter. Staminal tube is short, more than 60 in 5 bundles. The stigma is light red, up to in length, ovary is pink, in length, with the skin of the ovary covered in white silky hair at 1mm long. Seeds are numerous, long, ovoid, black or gray in colour and packed in white cotton.
The fruit, which reaches an average of in length, is light-green in color in immature fruits, brown in mature fruits.
==Gallery==
Cultivation
The tree is widely planted in southeastern Asian countries and regions (such as in Myanmar, Nepal, Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia, Philippines, Indonesia, southern China and Taiwan, etc.). According to Chinese historical record, the king of
Nam Yuet (located in the southern China and northern Vietnam nowadays),
Zhao Tuo, gave a tree to the emperor of the
Han dynasty in the 2nd century BC.
This tree is commonly known as Let-pan (Burmese language: လက်ပံ), semal (), (), shimul () or ximolu (Assamese: শিমলু) in India. It is widely planted in parks and on roadsides there because of its beautiful red flowers which bloom in March/April. This tree is quite common in New Delhi although it doesn't reach its full size of 60m there because of the semi arid climate. The cotton fibers of this tree can be seen floating in the wind around the time of early May. This tree shows two marked growth sprints in India: in spring and during the monsoon months. Perhaps due to subtropical climate and heavy rainfalls, it is found in dense populations throughout the Northeast India. In Myanmar, its flowers are let to be dry and cooked, which is one of the traditional foods of Myanmar.
This tree is also found in the eastern parts of Pakistan, especially in the eastern city of Lahore. The local Urdu and Punjabi language names for the tree is sumbal.
The 1889 book The Useful Native Plants of Australia records that the tree was at that time known as Bombax malabaricum, its common names included "Simool Tree" or "Malabar Silk-cotton Tree of India", and that the calyx of the flower-bud was eaten as a vegetable in India.
Uses
The white fluffy fibres are carded into thread and woven into textiles in Nepal and India. In North India, the fibers are also used in pillows. In Thailand, the dry cores of the
Bombax ceiba flower ()
are an essential ingredient of the
nam ngiao spicy noodle soup of the cuisine of
Shan State and Northern Thailand,
[ Cooking Northern Thai Food – Khanom Jeen Nam Ngeow ] as well as the
kaeng khae curry.
Role in Cantonese culture
Bombax ceiba is literally known as "cotton-tree flowers" in Cantonese. It plays a vital role in
Southern Chinese, especially Guangzhou Cantonese culture. It is the official flower of
Guangzhou, the capital of
Guangdong in southern China. Flowering season takes places from late February to early May. Fruiting can start as early as March. At the peak of its flowering season, elderly people may often be seen gathering the fallen flowers, which they later dry to prepare tea or soup. The flowers are very attractive to local wildlife such as the fruit-eating Japanese white-eye, which often draw a hole in an unopened flower bud.
and
also attracted to the flowers to collect pollen and nectar. Because the flowers attract many insects,
can be occasionally found on a fully opened flower, hunting bees.
The flower was also used as the trademark of the Guangzhou-based China Southern Airlines.[" 标记的意义 " 南航官网. 于2010年1月14日查阅.]
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