Ceiba
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 Ceiba pentandra leaves and fruit
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About 10-20 species, including: |
Ceiba is the name of a genus of many species of large trees found in tropical areas, including Mexico, Central and South America, The Bahamas, the Caribbean, West Africa, and Southeast Asia. Some species can grow to 70 meters tall or more, with a straight, largely branchless trunk that culminates in a huge, spreading canopy, and "buttress" roots that can be taller than a grown man. The best-known, and most widely cultivated, species is Kapok, Ceiba pentandra.
Recent botanical opinion incorporates Chorisia within Ceiba, raising to number of species from the previously accepted figure of 10 to as many as 20 or more, and puts the genus as a whole within the family Malvaceae.
Ceiba species are used as food plants by the larvae of some Lepidoptera species including the leaf-miner Bucculatrix ceibae which feeds exclusively on the genus.
The tree figures in the mythologies of pre-Columbian Mesoamerican cultures, in particular that of the Maya civilization, where the concept of the central world tree is often depicted as a ceiba trunk, which connects the planes of the Underworld (Xibalba), the skies and the terrestrial realm.
The Honduran city of La Ceiba was named after a particular ceiba tree that grew down by the old docks. The Puerto Rican town of Ceiba is also named after this tree. Ceiba is also the national tree of both Guatemala and Puerto Rico.
Ceiba should not be confused with the vernacular name ceibo (Erythrina crista-galli), the national tree of Argentina and Uruguay.
