Herbarium JCB

Bombax ceiba L.

Family : BOMBACACEAE
Family (As per The Plant List) : Malvaceae
Species : Bombax ceiba
Species Name (as per The Plant List) : Bombax ceiba L.
Common name : Silk Cotton Tree, Malabar Semul
Vernacular name : Shalmali (San.); Nurma, Huttian, Shimal (Hin.); Kempu buruga (Kan.)
Collection Nos : KFP 512, CJS 11573
Collector(s) Name : Syed Maqsood Ahamed
Key identification features : A very large tree often with buttresses.Young plants have conical prickles on the stem; branches are in whorls and oriented horizontally. Leaves are palmately compound with 5-7 lanceolate leaflets. Flowers are large, crimson-red or scarlet, sometimes appearing white when the tree is leafless; stamens are many and occur in six bundles around the style. Fruit is a capsule. Seeds are embedded in a silky floss.
Habit : Tree
Native : Tropical Asia
Comments : Silk cotton used for stuffing pillows.
Conservation Status : Not Evaluated (NE)
Collection Locality : Vartehalli (Bangalore)
Distribution Locality : Bagalkot, Bangalore, Belgaum, Bellary, Bidar, Bijapur, Chamrajnagar, Chikamagalur, Chikkaballapur, Chitradurga, Dakshina Kannada, Davanagere, Dharwad, Gadag, Gulbarga, Hassan, Haveri, Kodagu, Kolar, Koppal, Mandya, Mysore, Raichur, Ramanagara, Shimoga, Tumkur, Udupi, Uttara Kannada, Yadgir
Floras referred : Saldanha, 1984; Gowda, 2004 - Sringeri; Seetharam et al., 2000 - Gulbarga; Rao & Razi, 1981 - Mysore; Keshava Murthy & Yoganarasimhan, 1990 - Coorg; Gopalakrishna Bhat, 2003 - Udupi; Manjunath et al., 2003 - Davanagere