Bombax insigne Wallich

 
  • Family : BOMBACACEAE
    (Bombax Or Kapok Family)
  • Family (Hindi name) : SEMAL FAMILY (लटकन फैमिली)
  • Family (as per The APG System III) : Malvaceae
  • Synonym(s) : Bombax festivum Wall.; Bombax scopulorum Dunn; Bombax tenebrosum Dunn; Gossampinus insignis Bakh.; Salmalia insignis (Wall.) Schott & Endl.; Salmalia scopulorum (Dunn) Stearn; Bombax insigne var. andamanica Prain
  • Species Name (as per The IPNI) : Bombax insigne Wall.
  • Common name : The White Silk Cotton Tree
  • Vernacular name :
    • Poola, Kallilavu, Ilavu, Parei-ilavu (Malayalam)
    • Shalmali (Marathi)
  • Habit : Tree
  • Habitat : Tropical moist deciduous forests, Tropical semi-evergreen forests, also in the plains.
  • Comments / notes : The cotton from the fruit is used for making surgical dressings
  • Key identification features : A lofty fast growing buttressed tree with conical prickles on the young stem; branches are arranged in whorls. Leaves are palmately compound with 5-7 lanceolate leaflets:Flowers that appear in clusters are conspicuous, attractive and light red: stamens numerous and occur in six bundles around the style. Fruit is a capsule with seeds are embedded in silky floss.
  • Flower, Fruit : January-May
  • Collector(s) Name : K.P.Sreenath, Raja Keshava Murthy, B.R.Ramesh
  • Collection Nos : KFP 5099, CJS 16013
  • Collection Locality : Jaipura (Chikmagalur)
  • Distribution :
    • Kerala : Wayanad district, Palakkad district, Thrissur district, Idukki district, Pathanamthitta district, Kollam district, Thiruvananthapuram district
    • Maharashtra : Aurangabad district, Kolhapur district, Pune district, Raigad district, Ratnagiri district, Sindhudurg district, Thane district
    • Tamil Nadu : Coimbatore district
    • Arunachal Pradesh : Arunachal Pradesh
    • Meghalaya : Meghalaya
    • Assam : Assam
    • Nagaland : Nagaland
    • Mizoram : Mizoram
    • Andaman and Nicobar Islands : Andaman and Nicobar Islands
    • Manipur : Manipur
    • Tripura : Tripura
  • Native : Andaman Islands, Bangladesh, China, India, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam
  • Exotic/Native : Native
  • World Distribution : Andaman Islands, Bangladesh, China, India, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam
  • Conservation Status : Not Evaluated (NE)
  • Literature :
    • Flora of Karnataka, Saldanha, 1984
    • Sasidharan, N. 2011. Flowering plants of Kerala. DVD, V 2, KFRI
    • Henry, Kumari & Chithra (1983). Flora of Tamil Nadu, India vol. 1.
    • Parkinson, C.E. 1923. A Forest Flora of the Andaman Islands, Govt. of India, Shimla 98
    • Nayar, T. S., et al, 2006. Flowering plants of Kerala, A hand book
  • Read more :
  • Citation : Sankara Rao, K., Deepak Kumar (2024). India Flora Online. http://indiafloraonline-ces.iisc.ac.in/plants.php?name=Bombax insigne. Downloaded on 12 October 2024.

Botanical Description

Herbarium Specimen(s)

Field Image(s)

Habitat

India Distribution

World Distribution

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