Silk Floss tree

Appearance

The natural habitat of the floss silk tree is the north-east of Argentina, east of Bolivia, Paraguay, Uruguay and southern Brazil. It is resistant to drought and moderate cold. It grows fast in spurts when water is abundant, and sometimes reaches more than 25 metres in height. Its trunk is bottle-shaped, generally bulging in its lower third, measuring up to 2 metres in girth. It is studded with thick conical prickles which serve to store water for dry times. In younger trees, the trunk is green due to its high chlorophyll content, which makes it capable of performing photosynthesis when leaves are absent; with age it turns to gray.

Uses

The "cotton" inside the fruit pods, although not of as good quality as that of the kapok tree, has been used as stuffing f, soft and flexible, and is employed in packaging, to make canoes, as wood pulp to make paper, and in ropes. From the seeds it is possible to obtain vegetable oil.

The floss silk tree is cultivated mostly for ornamental purposes. Outside of private gardens around the world, it is often planted along urban streets in subtropical areas such as in South Africa, Australia, northern New Zealand and southern USA. "Ceiba speciosa" is added to some versions of the hallucinogenic drink Ayahuasca.