Botanical Family · Malvales

Bombacaceae

Bombax Or Kapok Family

9 speciesOrder Malvales8+ well-known plants

The Bombacaceae family (Bombax Or Kapok Family) is a botanical family placed in the order Malvales. In the SASYA catalogue it spans 9 species across 8 genera. Its members are predominantly trees. Well-represented genera include Bombax, Adansonia and Ceiba. Several members are valued in traditional medicine. Familiar examples include African Calabash, Silk Cotton Tree and The White Silk Cotton Tree.

Browse all 9 species ↓

Representative specimen · Bombacaceae

Key pattern

Massive trees with swollen, sometimes bottle-shaped, water-storing trunks and palmately compound leaves; large showy flowers with numerous stamens fused at the base ripen into a capsule packed with seeds embedded in silky floss.

The silky seed-floss (kapok) is naturally buoyant and water-repellent, once widely used to stuff life jackets and pillows before synthetic fibres took over.

Identify the species

Which Bombacaceae species is this?

Answer what you can see and narrow it down to a single Bombacaceae species.

Click a node to trace its path · pinch or scroll to zoom · drag to pan

Flower ColorWhat color are the flowers?

Pale yellow-cream

Pink

Pink-purple

Red

White

White-cream

Yellow

Trunk TextureWhat does the trunk look like?

Massively swollen, bottle-shaped

Ordinary

Family identification method

To check whether a plant belongs to Bombacaceae, compare the leaf arrangement, leaf type, flower symmetry, fruit type, and one distinctive marker together. A single feature can mislead; the family pattern is the combination.

Learn the full family-identification method

Notable members

African Calabash, Baobab Tree, Monkey Bread Tree, African Baobab TreeAdansonia digitataSilk Cotton Tree, Malabar SemulBombax ceibaThe White Silk Cotton TreeBombax insigneKapok Tree, White Silk Cotton TreeCeiba pentandraSilk Floss TreeChorisia speciosaWild DurianCullenia exarillataBalsa TreeOchroma pyramidaleWild ChestnutPachira insignis

Families that can look similar

Malvaceae

Compare against Malvaceae when the plant shares similar leaves, flowers, or fruit. Confirm by checking the full family pattern.

Compare Malvaceae

Sterculiaceae

Compare against Sterculiaceae when the plant shares similar leaves, flowers, or fruit. Confirm by checking the full family pattern.

Compare Sterculiaceae

Tiliaceae

Compare against Tiliaceae when the plant shares similar leaves, flowers, or fruit. Confirm by checking the full family pattern.

Compare Tiliaceae

Dipterocarpaceae

Compare against Dipterocarpaceae when the plant shares similar leaves, flowers, or fruit. Confirm by checking the full family pattern.

Compare Dipterocarpaceae

All 9 species in BOMBACACEAE

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