Kapok (Ceiba Pentandra)

The Ceiba pentandra is possibly one of the noblest tropical trees. It features immense, buttressed roots that anchor its colossal, lofty, thorny mast, supporting a massive spiral of horizontal limbs. These limbs hold billowing, palmately lobed foliage in strikingly level planes of bright green. With its towering and robust trunk, this prodigious superstructure has adapted to thrive in all corners of the tropics. As the tree matures, it sheds its lower limbs, becoming pole-like in appearance.

In winter, small, green, acorn-shaped calyxes cluster at the stem ends and open to reveal cupped, compact, pale yellow or whitish, heavily waxy flowers with sturdy, curling, golden stamens. These flowers produce the famed Kapok, a silky fiber used to fill pillows, cushions, and mattresses. During World War II, Kapok was widely used in Europe as padding for lifesaving jackets.

The Kapok tree is the tallest species in Africa, where it is cultivated primarily for its cotton-like crop