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.

Medium-sized to tall, deciduous tree, scattered in the drier forest types but also in the rainforest; low buttresses and heavy thorns, vanishing from old trees but present on branches; very conspicuous big red flowers, appearing when the tree has shed its leaves. Fruits 10 – 20 cm long, cylindrical/spindle-shaped, opening with 5 valves. Numerous seeds embedded in a white kapok. Young trees resembling Ceiba but the leaflets of Ceiba have a distinct petiolule. Slash may show ripple marks because both Ceiba and Rhodognaphalon have ripple marks: observations requested!