Dilip Walse Patil

Scientific Name : Bombax insigne Wall.

Category : Angiosperms

Status : Alive

Habit : Tree Showy Silk Cotton Tree is a large deciduous tree very similar and often mistaken for the red Silk Cotton Tree, with an unarmed or slightly prickly trunk. Leaves are compound, with 7-9 leaflets arranged on a common petiole 7 to 10 inches long. Leaflets are 5-6 X 1-1.75 inches, obovate in shape, with a pointed tip. Petiolules very short. Sepal tube is urn-shaped, slightly 2-lobed, 1.5 inches long, sometimes prickly outside, densely silky within. The species name insigne means striking, noted, spectacular. And it is a striking tree indeed. Flowers are very showy, scarlet, pink, creamy, or white. Petals 5, narrowed into the base, 3-6 X 1-1.5 inches, turned back. Stamens are long and numerous, arranged in bundles of 50 or more and completely filling the flower cup. (This is a very good distinguishing character to separate it from the Red Silk Cotton.) Fruit is a capsule reaching almost a foot in length by 2-2.5 inches in diameter, distinctly five-angled (another good distinguishing character), filled with silky cotton and round seeds. Flowering: November-January. The bark gives a gum and exudates are used in medicine. The cotton from the fruit is used for making surgical dressings.