Creature Feature Encyclopedia: Plants

Kapok Tree Ceiba pentandra

The kapok tree is found in African and American rainforests. Because this tree can grow to be 150-200 feet tall, giant buttress roots are necessary to hold it up. While other trees flower in the dry season, kapok trees flower only in the flood season. The flowers produce cotton-like seeds which are blown in the wind and eventually carried away by the river. Natives attach kapok fuzz to the rear of their blowgun darts. Kapok is also used as the stuffing in some life jackets.

~A Walk in the Rainforest © 1992