Kapok: ceiba pentandra
Kapok is native to Costa Rica, but found from Southern Mexico through South America, and parts of Africa and Asia.
Classification:
Kingdom: Plantae
Order: Malvales
Family: Malvaceae
Genus: Ceiba
Species: C. pentandra
Characteristics:
The Kapok can grow up to 70 meters (230 feet) with a trunk around 3 meters (10 feet) in diameter and thorns on its trunk and larger branches. It grows 4 meters (13 feet) per year, and can live as long as 200 years. It has large buttresses on the bottom and a flat crown on top. It grows 5-9 leaflets per palmate leaf around 20 centimeters (8 inches) long radiating from a center point. They grow hundreds of white, fluffy fibrous pods made of lignin and cellulose, whose fibers help them stay aloft when they float away from their parent tree. Their large, bell-shaped flowers have five white or pink petals, and an acrid smell to attract bat, bee, hummingbird, and beetle cross-polinators. The tree opens one to two flowers each night to guarantee pollination. It also produces 500-4,000 fruits per season. They are thick and contain 200 little brown seeds, so a Kapok tree could produce as many as 800,000 little brown seeds per season. They are very susceptible to interior decay like many neotropical plants, however their hollow trunks can provide an advantage because it hosts many species of animals (bats particularly) whose droppings provide good nutrients to the tree. Because it's too dark inside the Kapok for anything else to grow, the nutrients are exclusively for the tree to use, so the interior decay could be natural selection.
Uses: The fibre from the Kapok is the useful part of the tree, and is used as an alternative to down filling of pillows, mattresses, upholstry, stuffed animals, and even life jackets before synthetic material took their place. Its fibre is very light, buoyent, resilient, and even risistent to water, but it is very flammable. Although it is labor intensive to seperate and spin the fibres, it is still very useful. Its seeds produce oil, and can be used for soaps and fertilizer. It has even been known to be used in blowguns for people native to the Amazon. The Kapok tree is heavily farmed in Asia, most in Java (namesake its nickname "Java Kapok") for its cotton and ability to produce vegetable oil. Its bark can be used in a decoction as a diuretic, aphrodisiac, relieving headaches, and even treating type II diabetes. In Suriname, it is widely used for treating dysentry, fevers, and asthma, and Colombia makes its bark into a hair growth concoction.
Threats: In Costa Rica, Kapoks are very rare. Their huge amount of wood isn't good for construction because it is brittle when dry, but it is often used for concrete framing Their wood is used only once and then discarded.
Cultural Importance: In Mayan and various Hispanic cultures, the Kapok is a holy tree that connects the Heavens and the Earth. Some believe the dead climb the Kapok to reach Heaven. In West Africa, it is sacred because it is associated with the dead and burials, and thought the bark and leaves have the power to dispel evil spirits. Many healing villages in Senegal are built at the base of these trees because it is believed the Kapok has healing power. In non-healing villages, a Kapok tree is often the center as well because it is to give shade to the people and crops and left as a reminder of the forest that used to be there.