Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
Kapok bolls in opened pods, still on the tree in Mexico. Kapok is grown and exported from Nigeria, Mozambique, and Tanzania in Africa, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Thailand, and the Philippines in Asia, and Ecuador in South America. [1] The product is transported in bales of about 100 kg (220 lb), but at low compression to prevent excessive compaction.
Kapok fibre is a cotton-like plant fibre obtained from the seed pods of a number of trees in the Malvaceae family, which is used for stuffing mattresses and pillows, for padding and cushioning, and as insulation.
The tree and the cotton-like fluff obtained from its seed pods are commonly known in English as kapok, a Malay-derived name which originally applied to Bombax ceiba, a native of tropical Asia. [3] In Spanish-speaking countries the tree is commonly known as " ceiba " and in French-speaking countries as fromager .
Common names for the genus include silk cotton tree, simal, red cotton tree, kapok, and simply bombax. Currently four species are recognised, although many plants have been placed in the genus that were later moved.
Bombax ceiba, like other trees of the genus Bombax, is commonly known as cotton tree.More specifically, it is sometimes known as Malabar silk-cotton tree; red silk-cotton; red cotton tree; or ambiguously as silk-cotton or kapok, [3] both of which may also refer to Ceiba pentandra.
Rhodognaphalon mossambicense, the East African bombax or wild kapok tree, is a species of flowering plant in the family Malvaceae. It occurs from southeastern Kenya through the coastal and Eastern Arc forests of Tanzania to northern Mozambique and Malawi .
Ceiba pentandra is the central theme in the book titled, The Great Kapok Tree by Lynne Cherry. Ceiba insignis and Ceiba speciosa are added to some versions of the hallucinogenic drink Ayahuasca . Pablo Antonio Cuadra , a Nicaraguan poet , wrote a chapter about the Ceiba tree.
Aerva javanica, the kapok bush or desert cotton, is a species of plant in the family Amaranthaceae. It has a native distribution incorporating much of Africa (including Madagascar), and the south-west and south of Asia, and it has become adventitious in northern Australia.