Bombax ceiba L.

Taxonomy: Plantae > Tracheophyta > Equisetopsida > Malvales > Malvaceae > Bombax > B. ceiba

Description: Deciduous trees; to 45 m high; bole straight, buttress 1-2 m high, armed with conical prickles; bark 20-30 mm thick, grey mottled with white, longitudinal fissures shallow; blaze pink, marked with triangular rays; branches horizontal and more or less whorled; branchlets prickly. Leaves digitately-compound, alternate, stipulate; stipules small, lateral; rachis 12-25 cm, stout, swollen at base, glabrous; leaflets 5-7, whorled; petiole stout, glabrous; lamina elliptic, elliptic-ovate or elliptic-obovate; base attenuate or cuneate; apex caudate-acuminate; margin entire, glabrous, chartaceous; lateral nerves 8-14 pairs, parallel, slightly ascending, prominent, secondary laterals also seen; intercostae reticulate. Flowers bisexual, dark crimson, 6-7 cm across, solitary or 2-5 together; pedicels 1-2 cm long, thick; calyx campanulate, irregularly lobed, lobes coriaceous, glabrous to sparsely puberulous outside, silky inside, falling of with corolla and stamens; petals obovate to elliptic-obovate, recurved, fleshy, tomentellous outside, imbricate; stamens in 5 bundles; staminal tube short; filaments flat, angular, connate only at the base of the bundles; anthers reniform; ovary conical, tomentose, 5-celled; ovules many; style exceeding the stamens; stigma 5-fid, lobes spreading. Fruit a capsule, downy tomentose, cylindrical, cuneate on both ends, blackish and glabrous at maturity, the columella brownish; seeds numerous, pyriform, smooth, dark brown, embedded in white cotton.

Flowering and Fruiting: January - April

Uses: Silk cotton extracted from fruits used for stuffing pillows, quilts and as an insulating material for refrigerators and sound-proof covers. Undeveloped fruit called Marati moggu used as spice in Indian cuisine. The bark gives a gum and exudates are used in medicine. The cotton is used to stuff pillows. Timber is used for matches and coffins. Medicinal: Bark, Flower, Root

Cultivation: Wild.

References

http://www.plantsoftheworldonline.org

https://indiabiodiversity.org