32-CIEBA PENTANDA(L.) Gaertn
Local name: Silk cotton plant
Family: Malvaceae
Location: Hornimon college of journalism building
Characters: The tree grows to 240 ft as confirmed by climbing and tape drop with reports of Kapoks up to 77 meters.These very large trees are in the Neotropics or tropical Africa. The Southeast Asian form of C. pentandra only reaches ninety feet. Trunks can often be up to 3 m in diameter above the extensive buttress roots. The very largest individuals, however, can be 5.8 m thick or more above the buttresses. The buttress roots can be clearly seen in photographs extending 12 to 15 m up the trunk of some specimens and extending out from the trunk as much as 20 m and then continuing below ground to a total length of 50 m. The trunk and many of the larger branches are often crowded with large simple thorns. These major branches, usually 4 to 6 in number, can be up to 1.8 m thick and form a crown of foliage as much as 61 m in width. The palmate leaves are composed of 5 to 9 leaflets, each up to 20 cm long. The trees produce several hundred 15 cm pods containing seeds surrounded by a fluffy, yellowish fibre that is a mix of lignin and cellulose.
General use: The flowers are an important source of nectar and pollen for honey bees and bats. Native tribes along the Amazon River harvest the fibre to wrap around their blowgun darts. The fibres create a seal that allows the pressure to force the dart through the tube. The fiber is light, very buoyant, resilient, resistant to water, but very flammable. It is used as an alternative to down as filling in mattresses, pillows, upholstery, zafus, and stuffed toys such as teddy bears, and for insulation. It was previously much used in life jackets and similar devices until synthetic materials largely replaced the fiber. The seeds produce an oil that is used locally in soap and can be used as fertilizer.