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Ceiba pentandra
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Family:
BOMBACACEAE
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Citation: Ceiba pentandra (L.) Gaertn., Fruct. 2: 244,t.133. 1791; Manilal & Sivar., Fl. Calicut 50. 1982; Mohanan, Fl. Quilon Dist. 93. 1984; Ramach. & V.J. Nair, Fl. Cannanore Dist. 67. 1988; Antony, Syst. Stud. Fl. Kottayam Dist. 80. 1989; Babu, Fl. Malappuram Dist. 77. 1990; Vajr., Fl. Palghat Dist. 87. 1990; M.P. Nayar & Biswas in B.D. Sharma & Sanjappa, Fl. India 3: 400. 1993; Subram., Fl. Thenmala Div. 38. 1995; Sasidh. & Sivar., Fl. Pl. Thrissur For. 65. 1996; Sivar. & Mathew, Fl. Nilambur 97. 1997; Sasidh., Fl. Shenduruny WLS 41. 1997; S.K. Srivastava & K. Vivek. in P. Daniel, Fl. Kerala 1: 446. 2005; Sunil & Sivadasan, Fl. Alappuzha Dist. 135. 2009; Ratheesh Narayanan, Fl. Stud. Wayanad Dist. 160. 2009.
Bombax pentandrum L., Sp. Pl. 511. 1753.
Eriodendron anfractuosum DC., Prodr. 1: 479. 1824; Hook. f., Fl. Brit. India 1: 350. 1874.
Eriodendron pentandrum (L.) Kurz, J. Asiat. Soc. Bengal, Pt. 2. Nat. Hist. 43: 113. 1874; Gamble, Fl. Pres. Madras 100(72). 1915.
Ceiba pentandra (L.) Gaertn. var. indica (DC.) Bakh. f., Bull. Jard. Bot. Buitenz. ser.3, 6: 195. 1924.
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Malayalam Name(s):
Dayna, Kapok, Panjimaram, Poola
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Tamil name(s):
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English name(s):
Kapok tree, White cotton tree, Silk Cotton Tree
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Description:
Trees, to 20 m high, buttressed at base; bark green or greenish-grey, peeling off in round bosses; exudation red, watery, sticky; branches horizontal in whorls. Leaves digitately compound, alternate, gathered towards the apex of branchlets; rachis 5-20 cm, slender, glabrous, swollen tip and base; leaflets 5-9; petiolule 3-8 mm, stout, glabrous; lamina 4.5-14.5 x 1.5-4 cm, elliptic, obovate-oblong or ovate-oblong, base acute or cuneate, apex acute or acuminate, margin entire, glabrous, chartaceous; lateral nerves 5-14 pairs, pinnate, prominent, intercostae reticulate, prominent. Flowers bisexual, creamy white, usually in clusters of 3-10, axillary or grouped towards the ends of leafless branchlets, rarely solitary, axillary; pedicels 2-4 cm long, stout, glabrous; calyx green, campanulate, ca. 1 cm long, irregularly 4-5 lobed, coriaceous, glabrous outside, silky pubescent inside, persistent; petals 5, 2.5-4 x 1-1.5 cm, creamy white, obovate-spathulate, adnate to the base of staminal tube, tomentose out side except at the base pubescent near the apex inside, imbricate; staminal tube divided into 5 phalanges, each dividing again into 2 filiform branches bearing 2-3 anafractose, 1-locular twisted anthers; ovary superior, globular or ovoid, yellow, sessile, tomentose at apex; 5-locular, ovules many in each locule, on axil placenta; style white, filiform at base, suddenly obliquely enlarged above the stamens; stigma capitate. Fruit a capsule 7.5-25 x 3-4 cm, ellipsoid to fusiform, green when young, become brown, narrowed at both ends, indehiscent or tardily dehiscing into 5 valves, septa membranous; seeds numerous, subpyriform, black with copious white silky fibres, testa brown to blackish.
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Habit:
Tree
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Flowering & Fruiting:
February-June
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District(s):
All Districts
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Medicinal:
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Habitat:
Cultivated
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Distribution:
Throughout the tropics
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Aquatic:
No
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Epiphyte(s):
No
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Saprophyte:
No
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Stem parasite:
No
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Root parasite:
No
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Flower colour(s):
White, Creamy
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Weed:
No
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Monocot/Dicot:
Dicotyledonous Plants
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Exotic:
Yes
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Garden:
No
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Edible:
No
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Vegetable:
No
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Endemic to:
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IUCN status:
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Altitude:
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Localities:
Peechi, Karivara slopes, Pathirapally, Karuvarakundu, Thenmalai
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