Kapok tree

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Kapok tree
Kapok tree Honolulu.jpg

Kapok tree ( Ceiba pentandra )

Systematics
Eurosiden II
Order : Mallow-like (Malvales)
Family : Mallow family (Malvaceae)
Subfamily : Woolly trees (Bombacoideae)
Genre : Ceiba
Type : Kapok tree
Scientific name
Ceiba pentandra
(L.) Gaertn.

The kapok tree ( Ceiba pentandra ), also known as the wool tree, is a species of the genus Ceiba in the subfamily of the wool tree family (Bombacoideae).

features

The kapok tree is a mighty, deciduous tree with an umbrella-shaped to round crown, the stature height of up to 75 meters and a trunk diameter of over 3 meters. It can live for over 500 years. It is one of the largest trees in the tropical rainforest and there it is a so-called overhang , which towers over the surrounding canopy by 10 to 20 m. The trunk is green-brownish when young and gray-brownish with age and it is then supported by high, broad buttress roots . In its youth it is densely covered with pointed, pyramidal to conical spines, which become less and less with increasing age. The tree carries a rubber , it is similar to Kutira rubber .

The long-stalked leaves are finger-shaped , with up to 20 centimeters long, glabrous, pointed and inverted-lanceolate to lanceolate, mostly entire, five to nine, short-stalked leaflets . They are dropped at the beginning of the dry season in February to March. At this time, the pink, yellowish to white hermaphrodite and five-fold, stalked flowers, which are mostly in clusters at the ends of branches, sprout. The flowers only open at night, from early evening to morning, and they have a strong and unpleasant odor due to their primary bat bloom ( leaf noses ), but moths, bees and bumblebees are also secondarily pollinators. The bell-shaped, four- to five-lobed calyx is greenish, the five-chambered ovary is semi-subordinate with a long stylus with a heady stigma. The stamens are shorter than the style and have two to three convoluted anthers.

The brown, leathery, oblong-ellipsoidal and buoyant fruits are up to 25 centimeters long, capsules that open along the partitions. The over 100, about 5-6 millimeters large, round, blackish seeds lie in a bed of numerous grayish to yellowish-white, downy hairs. The hairs arise from the endocarp of the pericarp and serve to spread the wind . When the fruit ripens, they break off from the pericarp.

The number of chromosomes is 2n = 72, 80, 84 or 88.

Photo gallery with details

  • Buttress roots of the kapok tree

  • Prickly trunk of the young tree

  • Leaves of Ceiba pentandra

  • Ceiba pentandra flowers

  • Fruit green

  • Fruit risen

  • Ceiba wood

Varieties

A distinction is sometimes made between three varieties .

  • Ceiba pentandra var. Caribaea , in South America and West Africa , over 60 meters high, fruits smaller and wider as well as opening, with buttress roots and the trunk has small spines.
  • Ceiba pentandra var. Guineensis , in the savannahs of West Africa, much smaller, up to 18 meters high and without buttress roots, opening fruits.
  • Ceiba pentandra var. Pentandra , the cultivated kapok tree from West Africa and Asia, up to 30 meters high, small or no buttress roots and non-opening fruits with lighter fibers.

Occurrence

Cotton tree in Freetown , Sierra Leone
The kapok tree is one of the typical " giants of the jungle towering above the forest "

The kapok tree probably originates from the tropical rainforest of Central and North South America and spread to West Africa. However, it could also be the other way around and the tree comes from West and Central Africa. It can now be found all over the tropics . Ceiba pentandra is a tree that needs light and requires a rainfall of around 1000 to 1500 mm during the rainy season . It grows to great heights of 4000 meters.

use

The kapok tree becomes u. a. Kapok won. The kapok fibers have a length of 10 to 35 millimeters and consist of 64% cellulose and hemicellulose . Due to their wax coating, they are water-repellent and difficult to spin. A single tree provides around 20 kg of pure fibers per year. Without further treatment, they can be used as filling material for lifebuoys and life jackets or as padding and insulating material.

Due to their high proportion of fatty oil ( kapok oil ) (up to 25%), the seeds of the kapok tree are used regionally for the production of soap or cooking oil , but they are also edible. Due to its antibacterial effect, the kapok is also used for wound care.

The light, not particularly valuable wood is soft and not durable. It is used for some applications.

mythology

In the mythology of the Maya of Yucatán , a kapok tree represents the Axis Mundi or the world tree , similar to the world ash Yggdrasil in Nordic mythology.

In stories that are widespread in the Peruvian Amazon lowlands, the kapok tree, called "Lupuna" there, plays an important role. In Amazonian mythology, it is associated with wights who, according to various traditions, live in the huge, often belly-shaped trunk of the tree or dance around it.

literature

Web links

Commons : Kapok tree ( Ceiba pentandra )  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Patrick Herrmann: fiber plants . Institute for Systematic Botany and Ecology, Ulm University, Useful Plants Seminar 2011 PDF , from uni-ulm.de, accessed on November 15, 2019.
  2. ↑ The thickest, tallest, and oldest kapok trees on monumentaltrees.com, accessed May 10, 2018.
  3. ^ IM Turner: The Ecology of Trees in the Tropical Rain Forest. Cambridge Univ. Press, 2004, ISBN 0-521-80183-4 , p. 132.
  4. ^ Edward M. Barrows: Animal Behavior Desk Reference. Third Edition, CRC Press, 2011, ISBN 978-1-4398-3652-1 , p. 491.
  5. ↑ a b c Michael Pankratius: Lexicon Renewable Raw Materials , accessed on April 10, 2010.
  6. ↑ a b c M. Brink, EG Achigan-Dako: Fibers. Plant Resources of Tropical Africa 16, Prota, 2012, ISBN 978-92-9081-481-8 , pp. 75-83.
  7. ↑ Ceiba pentandra at Tropicos.org. In: IPCN Chromosome Reports . Missouri Botanical Garden, St. Louis
  8. ↑ Christian Rätsch : Introduction to the cosmology of the Maya. In: Ders .: Chactun - The Mayan Gods. Source texts, presentation and dictionary. (= Diederichs Yellow Series. Volume 57), Eugen Diederichs Verlag, Munich 1986, p. 15.
  9. ↑ Christian Rätsch: Introduction to the cosmology of the Maya. In: Ders .: Chactun - the gods of the Maya. Source texts, presentation and dictionary. (= Diederichs Yellow Series. Volume 57). Indians. 2nd updated edition. Diederich , Munich 1994, ISBN 3-424-00797-8 , p. 15.