Silk Cotton Tree

Silk Cotton Tree

The Silk Cotton Tree is also called Kapok tree. It was the sacred tree of the Mayan people who believed that the souls of the dead climbed a mythical kapok whose branches reached into heaven.

Silk Cotton trees can grow 10' taller in one year but they are better known for their wide buttresses at the base of the trunk.

Silk Cotton or Kapok Tree

Note the wide buttresses at the base of this Silk Cotton tree located in front of the Court house in Key West, Florida.

If you are visiting Key West you can find this tree at the corner of Whitehead and Fleming streets in Old Town Key West.

Silk Cotton or Kapok Tree

Don't you just love the shapes being formed by the buttresses on this large silk cotton tree.

Silk Cotton or Kapok Tree

Silk Cotton trees drop their leaves once a year during the dry season leaving bare limbs.

Every 5 to 10 years large bell-shaped flowers appear with foul-smelling flowers. The white to pink flowers have 5 petals. The flowers open in the early evening in order to attract bats that polinate the kapok tree.

Silk Cotton or Kapok Tree

Most commercial kapok, or Silk Cotton fiber, comes from the Island of Java in Indonesia.

Adult trees produce seed pods. The pods contain seeds surrounded by a fluffy, yellowish fiber. That fiber is used as insulation, furniture stuffing and is even found inside some lifejackets. During WW II these life jackets were known as Mae Wests. The fiber is light-weight and waterproof.

The fiber is not used for clothing because it is short and breaks easily so it can not be easily made into thread like cotton.

Silk Cotton or Kapok Tree

Oil is made from the seeds and is used to make soap. The seeds are edible and are even eaten in some areas of the world.

The wood is soft and is used to make dugout canoes, carvings and caskets.

Silk Cotton or Kapok Tree

Silk Cotton tree located on the corner of (US-1 Truman Avenue) and White street in Key West, Florida.

Silk Cotton or Kapok Tree

The chickens around this silk cotton tree tell me it is located in Key West.

Feral chickens are protected in Key West.

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