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Hello, I am Malabar Silk Tree
I am native to South and Southeast Asia and widely distributed across tropical and subtropical regions.
I am a fast-growing, deciduous tree (meaning I shed my leaves annually). If you see me during the Spring, you will be awestruck by my beautiful five-petaled red flowers. One of my distinguishing features is my straight trunk often with large conical thorns when young (they shed as I become older). Also, my leaves spread out like a hand, usually with five leaflets radiating from a single point (palmately compound leaf structure).
My ripe fruit is full of fibers that are used to extract the cotton substance called 'kopak.’ I grow to an average height of 20 meters, with some older trees reaching up to 60 meters in wet tropical regions. My trunk and limbs, bears spikes to protect against animal attacks, particularly when young, but these erode as I age.
My scientific name is Bombax ceiba. The name is derived from the Greek word 'bombux' (meaning silk or silk-worm) and the Caribbean word 'ceiba' (used as a general reference to silk-cotton trees)
Sanskrit name is: Śālmalī शाल्मलि.
My Story
Like other trees in my genus Bombax, I am commonly known as a cotton tree. More specifically, I am sometimes referred to as the Malabar silk-cotton tree, red silk-cotton, red cotton tree, or kapok. I am known as Let-pan (လက်ပံ) in Burmese, Semal (सेमल) in Hindi, Shimul (শিমুল) in Bengali, or Ximolu (শিমলু) in Assamese.
You can find me in Southeast Asian countries specifically in Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia, the Philippines, Indonesia, South China, and Taiwan. I am widely planted as an ornamental tree in parks and on roadsides, particularly because of my vibrant red blooms that appear during the Spring each year. I am a common sight on Delhi roads and my cotton fibers can be seen floating in the wind around early May. I show two marked growth sprints in India - in spring and during the monsoon months. Due to the sub-tropical climate and heavy rainfalls, I am found in dense populations throughout Northeast India.
In China and Vietnam, my name is in historical records. Zhao Tuo, the king of Nam Yuet (earlier a part of South China and currently in North Vietnam) gave a Bombax ceiba tree to the emperor of the Han dynasty in the 2nd century BC.
In Myanmar, my dried and cooked flowers are one of their traditional foods. My fruit, leaves, buds, and calyx are mucilaginous (sticky) and can be eaten like okra.
Ecologically, I play a vital role in supporting biodiversity by providing a rich source of nectar from my flowers, attracting a wide variety of pollinators like birds, bees, and butterflies, thus contributing to the reproduction of other plants in the ecosystem. Additionally, my large canopy offers nesting and roosting sites for birds. My seeds serve as a valuable food source for animals and birds during dry seasons, providing them with essential nutrients during a period of food scarcity.
I hold immense cultural, medicinal, and economic significance. Kapok is used for making economically priced pillows, quilts, and sofas. My wood is not as durable, but I am popular for making plywood, match-boxes, sticks, scabbards, canoes, light duty boats, and other structures required underwater. I have anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, and antimicrobial properties. In traditional medicine, various parts of my tree like bark, roots, flowers, and gum are used to treat ailments such as diarrhea, wounds, and respiratory issues.
However, due to my extensive use in medicine, commercial harvesting and cultural practices like burning my wood during festivals, it is leading to the loss of my natural habitat.
Flowers of the Malabar Silk Tree
Conical thorns on a juvenile Malabar Silk tree
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