Spermatophyta: Dicotyledonae: Archichlamydeae

Bombacaceae - Baobab family

Literature

Bailey, L.H. & Bailey, E.Z. (1976) Hortus Third. A concise Dictionary of Plants Cultivated in the United States and Canada Macmillan Publishing Co, Inc., New York

Wild, H. (1961) Bombacaceae FZ 1(2)

Description of the family

The following description refers to Adansonia only. Tree, with an extraordinary swollen trunk. Stipules present, deciduous. Leaves alternate, simple (in young trees) or digitate (in older trees). Flowers large and showy, pendulous, solitary in leaf axils, bisexual, actinomorphic. Pedicels with 2 bracteoles. Calyx deeply 5-lobed (in ours), often with an epicalyx. Petals 5, free. Stamens numerous, united into a tube below (in ours); anthers 1-thecous. Ovary superior, 5-10-locular (in ours). Fruit woody, indehiscent (in ours).

Worldwide: 26 genera and 250 species, tropical, especially America.

Links to genera: (1) View: living plant images - herbarium specimen images - all images for this family

Genus	Content
Adansonia L.	Description, Image

Other sources of information about Bombacaceae:

Flora of Zimbabwe: cultivated Bombacaceae page
Flora of Mozambique: Bombacaceae
GRIN (Germplasm Resources Information Network) taxonomy for plants report for Bombacaceae
Google: Web - Images - Scholar