5024.000 Bombax L.

Trees, sometimes spiny. Leaves digitate with 5-7 leaflets. Flowers large (c. 5 cm or more long) solitary or in short cymes or clusters. Calyx truncate or shortly lobed. Petals 5. Stamens numerous. Ovary 5-locular with many ovules per loculus. Fruit dehiscent, a 5-lobed woody capsule, full of silky hairs containing the seeds.

Derivation of name: from the Greek bombyx, meaning silk, referring to the silky hairs surrounding the seeds.

Worldwide: 20 species in the Old World tropics

Zimbabwe: 1 cultivated taxon.