• Family : BOMBACACEAE
  (Bombax Or Kapok Family)
• Family (Hindi name) : SEMAL FAMILY (लटकन फैमिली)
• Family (as per The APG System III) : MALVACEAE
• Basionym : Bombax pentandra L.
• Species Name (as per The Plant List) : Ceiba pentandra (L.) Gaertn.
• Common name : Kapok Tree, White Silk Cotton Tree
• Vernacular name : Safed Simal (Hindi); Bili buruga, Haasige hati mara (Kannada); Elavam (Tamil); Swetasalmali (Sanskrit); Dayna, Kapok, Panjimaram, Poola (Malayalam); Salmali, Shameula (Marathi)
• Habit : Tree
• Habitat : Cultivated
• Comments / notes : Often planted in hilly plains up to 800m.
• Flower, Fruit : January-June
• Distribution :
  • Andhra Pradesh : All districts of Andhra Pradesh
  • Kerala : All districts of Kerala
  • Maharashtra : Nagpur district, Aurangabad district, Mumbai-City district, Mumbai Suburban district, Pune district
  • Odisha : Cuttack district, Mayurbhanj district
  • Tamil Nadu : Planted
• Native : Africa
• World Distribution : Tropics of the World
• Conservation Status : Not Evaluated (NE)
• Literature : Pullaiah et al., 2002 - Flora of Eastern Ghats Vol. 1; H.O. Saxena & M. Brahmam, 1994- Flora of Orissa Vol. 1; R. S. Rao et al., 1986 - Flora of West Godavari District; R. S. Rao and S. H. Sreeramulu, 1986 - Flora of Srikakulam District; Matthew, K.M., Flora of Tamil Nadu Carnatic, Vol.3 (1). Diocesan Press, Madras. 1983; Henry, Kumari & Chithra (1983). Flora of Tamil Nadu, India vol. 1; N.P. Sing & S. Karthikeyan 2000. Flora of Maharashtra vol 1. Botanical survey of India, Govt. India; Sasidharan, N. 2011. Flowering plants of Kerala. DVD, V 2, KFRI.
• Citation : Sankara Rao, K., Raja K Swamy, Deepak Kumar, Arun Singh R. and K. Gopalakrishna Bhat (2019). Flora of Peninsular India. http://peninsula.ces.iisc.ac.in/plants.php?name=Ceiba pentandra. Downloaded on 3 June 2025.

Botanical Description

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