Ceiba pentandra
Bombacaceae
Habit
Tree
Fern
No
Predominant Habitat
Forest
Geographic Distribution
Liberia
IUCN Red-List
Not assessed
Synonyms
-
Rank
-
Taxon
-
Literature
FWTA 1: 335; Voorhoeve, 1979: 65
Vouchers
van Harten 237 (WAG) van Meer 284 (WAG)
Common Name(s)
Gwe (Gio) Dju (Krahn) ceiba (fromager) (Liberian english/ local name/ trade name) geih (Mano) Choo (Sapo)
Notes
Large or emergent tree with massive buttresses and, especially when young, sharp thorns on the bark; often near villages or, when in the high forest, possibly a remnant of former habitation. Slash pinkish red, darker on the buttresses, thick and fibrous, with distinct ligher streaks of dilatation tissue and ripple marks in the cambium zone. Leaves digitate, alternate, with long petioles, the 5 – 9 leaflets with a distinct petiolule; leaflets narrowly obovate, narrowly elliptic, 5 – 18 cm long. Flowers yellowish, opening at night. Fruits cylindrical/spindle-shaped, 10 – 30 cm, opening with 5 valves (or not). Seeds embedded in a greyish kapok, the source of the trade article “kapok’, used to fill mattresses etc. See also PROTA database.