Bombax ceiba · Lablypedia

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. It produces a capsule which, when ripe, contains white fibres like cotton. Its trunk bears spikes to deter attacks by animals. Although its stout trunk suggests that it is useful for timber, its wood is too soft to be very useful.

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 7–10 centimetres (2+5⁄6–4 in) wide, 13–15 centimetres (5+1⁄6–5+5⁄6 in) in length. The leaf's long flexible petiole is up to 20 centimetres (8 in) 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 7–11 centimetres (2+5⁄6–4+1⁄3 in) wide, 14 centimetres (5+1⁄2 in) in width, petals up to 12 centimetres (4+2⁄3 in) in length, calyx is cup-shaped usually 3 lobed, an average of 3–5 centimetres (1+1⁄6–2 in) in diameter. Staminal tube is short, more than 60 in 5 bundles. The stigma is light red, up to 9 centimetres (3+1⁄2 in) in length, ovary is pink, 1.5–2 centimetres (2⁄3–5⁄6 in) 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 13 centimetres (5 in) in length, is light-green in color in immature fruits, brown in mature fruits.

3 more chapters are free with a Lably account.

Range

The tree is native to various areas in Tropical Asia and Oceania, which includes Pakistan, India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Myanmar, South China, Taiwan, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, Malaysia, Indonesia, Philippines, the Solomon Islands, Papua New Guinea and Australia. It is typically found in Tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forests but in some areas in Southern China they grow in drier valleys and savannas.

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 (Hindi: सेमल), shimal (Nepali: सीमल), shimul (Bengali: শিমুল) 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 Margalla Hills and the eastern city of Lahore. The local Urdu and Punjabi names for the tree is sumbal.

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 (Thai: งิ้ว) are an essential ingredient of the nam ngiao spicy noodle soup of the cuisine of Shan State and Northern Thailand, as well as the kaeng khae curry.

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", and that the calyx of the flower-bud was eaten as a vegetable in India.

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. Honey bees and bumble bees also attracted to the flowers to collect pollen and nectar. Because the flowers attract many insects, crab spiders 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.