Kapok

More about kapok (Ceiba pentandra), is also called Java cotton, ceiba, or Java kapok,  seed-hair fibre obtained from the fruit of the kapok tree or the kapok tree itself. Is great that it is a tree that will keep on and on providing more kapok naturally. The kapok is a huge tree of the tropical forest canopy and emergent layer. The tree is found throughout the tropics, the kapok is native to the New World and to Africa and at one point it was transported to Asia, where it is cultivated for its fibre, or floss. The kapok’s huge buttressed trunk tapers upward to an almost horizontal, spreading crown where large, compound leaves are made up of five to eight long, narrow leaflets. In full sun, the kapok can grow up to 13 fee per year, thats a lot of natural groth. The tree eventually reaches over 160 feet. The kapok is deciduous, dropping its foliage after seasonal rainy periods. No need to use any machinery or chemicals to remove it! Yeah!! That what we love about it at White Lotus Home. Flowering occurs when the tree is leafless, thereby improving access for the bats that feed on the sugar-laden nectar of kapok blossoms. In doing so, the bats unwittingly pollinate the tree’s flowers. The flowers open at night and have five petals that are white or pink on the outside. Only a few flowers on a given branch will open on any particular night during the two or three weeks that the tree blooms. So cool that is does all of this on its own. We love using kapok.