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Kampala Tree and Palm Directory

Tree Species

Common Name

Tree Description

Tree Uses

English: Silk floss tree.

Whole tree

Leaves

Bark

+ Tree Species

Ceiba speciose

+ Tree Family

Bombacaceae

+ Ecology

Silk floss tree is native to the tropical and subtropical forests of South America. It requires Well drained, moist, fertile humus.

+ Description

Silk floss tree is a deciduous tree with a dense, wide-spreading canopy, growing 15 - 30 meters tall. The bright green bole, which is covered in stout spines when young, usually branches from quite low down. It can be 80 - 120cm in diameter.

BARK: green or light gray, spiny.

LEAVES: alternate, 5-7 palmately compound, light green.

FLOWERS: open, funnel-shaped, maroon, pink, purple or rose. Has perfect flowers (male and female parts in each flower).

FRUIT: woody pods filled with fluffy silk, white capsule, Very Large (Over 3.00 inches.

+ Uses

An ornamental and shade tree.

The seed floss is used as a stuffing material in pillows, cushions etc.

This plant yields a fiber of which textures are made which are so much like silk in their lustre, fineness, and pliability as to be scarcely distinguished from it.

The wood can be used for making canoes, troughs, wooden bowls, clogs, boxes etc.

It can also be used as a source of cellulose.

+ Propagation

Seeds.

+ Management

Fast-growing

+ Remarks

Floss Silk Tree is well known for the large spikes protecting the trunk and limbs and the woody seed-pods which produce a soft silk that protects its seeds. The plant is harvested from the wild mainly for its seed floss, which is used as a stuffing material. It is often grown as an ornamental, being valued especially for its spectacular flowering display.