Bombacaceae

Kapok Family

By: George Rogers

This small (about 20 genera) family is scattered around the tropical globe. The stipulate leaves are usually palmately compound, and the flowers usually large, radially symmetrical, and showy with colorful petals and numerous long stamens.  The generic assignments of  tend to be inconsistent among authorities. In some contemporary classifications, Bombacaceae are interpreted as belonging to Malvaceae. A few species are cultivated in our area:

Key to Important Bombacaceae Cultivated in South Florida

1. Leaves hairy on the undersides; flowers dangling on long pedicels, white; trunk spineless…Baobab (Adansonia digitata)

1. Leaves glabrous (bare) on the undersides; flowers upright or at least not hanging down, usually pinkish or reddish (infrequently white); trunk with or without spines…2

2. Trunk spineless, more or less succulent (may not be apparent on large specimens), flowers dominated by “shaving brush” of pink (or occasionally white) stamens, the perianth parts not showy …Shaving Brush Tree (Pseudobombax ellipticum)

2. Trunk spiny, not succulent, the petals showy…3

3. Flowers with the petals reddish, these almost as wide as long…Red Silk-Cotton, Kapok (Bombax ceiba)

3. Flowers with the petals pinkish (yellow on the inside base), these much longer than broad…Floss Silk Tree (Chorisia speciosa)

Other plants in the manual include:

Durio zibethinus

Durio graveolens