Digital Garden

Bombax ceiba

Semal

Scientific Name: Bombax ceiba

Scientific Name- Bombex ceiba

Common name- Semal, red silk cottontree

Family-  Malvaceae

Habit type – Large tree 

Leaves- Green digitately-compound, alternate, stipulate; stipules small, lateral; rachis 12-25 cm, stout, swollen at base, glabrous; leaflets 5-7, whorled; petiole 14-25 mm long, stout, lamina elliptic, or elliptic-obovate; margin entire, glabrous, chartaceous; lateral nerves 8-14 pairs, parallel, slightly ascending, prominent, intercostae reticulate,Deciduous leaves

Bark- Light gray in colour, Bumpy surface

Flowers- showy 5-petaled red to orange-red  cup shaped flowers (each to 6-7” long) bloom singly or in clusters for about one month in late winter to early spring, Solitary inflorescence.

Fruits- Brown coloured, Showy, Harvest in summer, Pointed fruits, longitudinally ribbed, woody seed capsules to 6 inches long filled with silky hair.

Medicinal importance and Significance-

• Roots yield a medicine used in impotency.

• Fibres are used in filling cushions.

• Wood is used in preparing match boxes and match sticks.

• Used as Fodder