Ceiba
| Ceiba | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
||||||||||||
| Systematics | ||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||
| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Ceiba | ||||||||||||
| Mill. |
Ceiba is a genus of plants in the subfamily of the wool tree family (Bombacoideae) from the family of the mallow family (Malvaceae). Its botanical name is probably of Haitian origin ( iba "tree").
description
.jpg)
Ceiba species grow as trees that reach heights of 2 to 50 meters and develop large, spreading crowns . The trunks are often swollen in a succulent manner and covered with spines , but even within most species there are strong and hardly swollen trunks with many or few spines. In some species the branches also have spines. The leaves are fingered in usually five to seven (rarely three) elliptical to lanceolate partial leaves, which can be up to 15 cm long.
The large and showy flowers appear individually or in small racemose inflorescences. The usually five, elongated to linear petals are sometimes funnel-shaped, but mostly spread apart. Their color is of crucial importance for determining the species. The stamens are fused around the ovary to form two long tubes, one inside the other. The filaments of the inner ring are fertile , those of the outer ring are sterile and thus staminodes . Pollination is carried out by animals ( zoogamy ). Depending on the species, butterflies , moths , hummingbirds or bats serve as pollen transporters.
The large, pear-shaped capsule fruits contain many seeds . The spherical to kidney-shaped, brown to black seeds are 5 to 10 mm in size and provided with tufts of flying hair for their spread by the wind ( anemochory ).
Systematics and distribution
In the literature, the genus belongs to the woolen plant family (Bombacaceae), which is now regarded as the subfamily Bombacoideae of the mallow family (Malvaceae).
All species are native to tropical America , only the kapok tree ( Ceiba pentandra ) also occurs naturally in West Africa . It is also often cultivated in other tropical areas, especially in Asia , and is often overgrown there.
Sections
The genus is divided into two sections:
[1] Ceiba section : The staminodes have vessels. The pollen are spherical to flattened spherical.
[2] Section Campylanthera ( Schott & Endl. ) K.Schum. : The staminodes have no vessels. The pollen are clearly flattened, spherical and have raised polar caps.
.jpg)
.jpg)
species
The genus consists of 17 species, including those of the earlier genus Chorisia Kunth :
-
Ceiba aesculifolia ( Kunth ) Britten & Baker f. [2]: The8 to 10 m high trees that growin partly deciduous forests from North Mexico to Central America have prickly trunks. The petals, which are turned far back, are mottled white / green:
- Ceiba aesculifolia subsp. aesculifolia : The large-leaved subspecies grows in dry valleys and hills from all of Mexico to Belize and Guatemala .
- Ceiba aesculifolia subsp. parvifolia ( Rose ) PEGibbs & Semir : The small-leaved subspecies grows in dry valleys of Mexico (apparently only in Morelos , Puebla and Oaxaca ).
- Ceiba boliviana Britten & Baker [1]: Theapproximately 10 m high trees growingin the dry valley forests of Bolivia and southern Peru usually have swollen, prickly trunks. The fairly upright petals are light pink to almost white and have many dark red stripes.
- Ceiba chodatii ( Hassl. ) Ravenna [1]: Themore than 12 m high trees growingin the dry forests of Paraguay , Bolivia and West Argentina (Piedmont Mountains) have swollen, mostly prickly trunks. The light beige to pale yellow petals sometimes have some blood-red spots.
- Ceiba crispiflora (Kunth) Ravenna [1]: Themore than 10 m high trees growingin the Atlantic rainforest ( Mata Atlântica ) near Rio de Janeiro in Brazil sometimes have swollen, prickly trunks. The narrow petals are purple to magenta on the outside and yellowish at the bases.
- Ceiba erianthos ( Cav. ) K.Schum. [1]: Theapproximately 10 m high trees growingon mostly rocky ground in dry coastal forests of southeast and east Brazil (Rio de Janeiro, East Minas Gerais , Espírito Santo and Bahia ) have dense and short prickly trunks and branches. The white petals have crimson stripes and are completely crimson at the bases.
- Ceiba glaziovii ( Kuntze ) K.Schum. [1]: The10 to 15 m high trees that growin dry forests (Caatinga) of northeast Brazil (Bahia, Pernambuco , Paraíba , Ceará ) have swollen, prickly trunks. The white petals have magenta stripes close to the base.
- Ceiba insignis (Kunth) PEGibbs & Semir [1]: Theapproximately 10 m high trees that growin the partly deciduous forests of southern Ecuador ( Loja ) and northern Peru ( Amazon , Cajamarca , Piura , and San Martin ) have swollen, mostly prickly stems. The petals are white to pale pink on the outside, sometimes with dark red stripes, then yellowish halfway down to the bases.
- Ceiba jasminodora ( A.St.-Hil. ) K.Schum. [1]: The endemic in and around the rocky highlands "Serra de Espinhaco" of Brazil (Minas Gerais), mostly only about 1 to 2 m (in culture up to 4 m) high trees have prickly trunks. The clearly bent back petals are cream-colored.
- Ceiba lupuna P.E. Gibbs & Semir [1]: Thetrees that grow up to 50 m highin the damp valley forests of central and eastern Peru, south-eastern Ecuador ( Napo ) and western Brazil ( Acre , Rondônia ) mostly have black-prickly trunks. The petals are dark red on the outside, then pale yellow and mottled red near the base.
- Kapok tree ( Ceiba pentandra ) ( L. ) Gaertn. [1]: The trees, which are widespread in tropical America and West Africa and grow up to 50 m (in cultivation up to 70 m) high, mostly have prickly trunks and often buttress roots . The petals are white to pink.
- Ceiba pubiflora (A.St.-Hil.) K.Schum. [1]: Thetrees growingon rocky limestone in partly deciduous forests in Argentina ( Misiones ), Paraguay, and Brazil ( Corumbá to the northeast of Minas Gerais, to Bahia and Espírito Santo) sometimes have swollen, prickly trunks halfway up . The petals are either uniformly pale pink with a few darker spots or dark purple with crimson streaks that can flow together halfway.
- Ceiba samauma ( Mart. ) K.Schum. [2]: Themore than 15 m high trees growingin the moist, riverside forests of Bolivia, Peru and the Amazon region of Brazil usually have only weakly prickly trunks. The petals are white, but hairy woolly golden brown.
- Ceiba schottii Britten & Baker f. [2]: The 8 m high trees that grow in dry forests of southwest Mexico and Guatemala have black prickly trunks and branches. The white petals are densely hairy.
- Ceiba soluta ( Donn.Sm. ) Ravenna [2]: The tall trees, which apparently only grow endemically in dry forests of Guatemala, have prickly trunks and flat crowns. The petals are white.
- Foil silk tree ( Ceiba speciosa (A.St.-Hil.) Ravenna , Syn .: Chorisia speciosa A.St.-Hil. ) [1]: The in both dry and in moist forests in a large area of Brazil, northern Argentina, Paraguay, Bolivia up to southern or central Peru growing, about 10 to 20 m high trees usually have slightly swollen, prickly trunks. The petals are magenta colored on the outside, usually with darker stripes halfway along and white to yellow at the bases.
- Ceiba trischistandra ( A.Gray ) Bakh. [1]: The15 to 30 m high trees that growin dry valleys on the Pacific coast of southern Ecuador and northern Peru have prickly trunks. The white to green mottled petals are woolly hairy.
- Ceiba ventricosa ( Nees & Mart.) Ravenna [1]: The over 10 m high trees growing in dry, partly deciduous forests of Brazil (Bahia, Espírito Santo, East Minas Gerais, Pernambuco and Paraiba) have swollen, prickly trunks . The petals are white to cream-colored with sparse, dark-red spots on the outside, near the base, which then become chocolate-brown over time.
use
The kapok tree is grown because of the fibers extracted from the seed hair. Because of its imposing appearance, Ceiba insignis is planted worldwide in frost-free climates in parks and gardens. Usually under its old name ( syn. ) Chorisia insignis Kunth, it can sometimes be seen in collections of succulent plants.
symbolism
The Ceiba was revered by the Maya due to its mighty branchless trunk, which only forms a crown high above - in their world of belief and imagination, they formed the world axis that connected heaven, earth and the underworld ( xibalba or mitaal ).
literature
- Peter Edward Gibbs & al .: A proposal to unite the genera Chorisia Kunth and Ceiba Miller (Bombaceae) . Notes Roy. Bot. Gard. Edinburgh 45: 125-136, 1988
- Peter Edward Gibbs & João Semir: A taxonomic revision of the genus Ceiba Mill. (Bombacaceae) , Anales Jard. Bot. Madrid 60 (2): 259-300, 2003
