케이바물병나무-ceibar insignis (Kunth) P.E.Gibbs & Semir

Origin and Habitat: Ceiba insignis, sometimes still called by the synonym Chorisia insignis, is a deciduous tree native to South Ecuador (Loja), North Peru (Amazonas, Cajamarca, Piura, and San Martin), Argentina, Paraguay, and Bolivia.
Habitat and ecology: Dry valleys with semi-deciduous, mainly xerophytic, woodland and savannas.

Synonyms:

• Ceiba insignis (Kunth) P.E.Gibbs & Semir

See all synonyms of Ceiba insignis

Common Names include:
ENGLISH: white dragon, Drunken Tree, White Kapok, bottle tree, chorry
CATALAN (Català): Corísia
FRENCH (Français): arbre bouteille, chorisia jaune, kapockier
GERMAN (Deutsch): flaschenbaum
GUARANI (Avañe’ẽ): mandiyú, mandiyú-rá, samu'u, samohú
HEBREW (עברית): כוריזיה בקבוקית
HINDI ( हिन्दी): रेशम रूई
ITALIAN (Italiano): albero bottiglia, chorisia, falso kapok
PORTUGUESE (Português): paineiera branca, paineira-barriguda branca
SPANISH (Español): toborochi, kapok, ceiba de Brasil, árbol de la seda, paina de seda, palo borracho, palo borracho blanco, árbol botella, chorisia, yuchán, yucán, algodón, algodonero, palo botella, palo barrigudo, árbol de la painera, painera de Corrientes, painero, peinera, árbol de lana, toborochi, toborochi blanco

Description: With their thorny markedly ventricose trunks and exotic-looking flowers, the Floss-Silk Trees (Ceiba insignis) are among the most distinctive ornamental trees. Formerly known as Chorisia insignis, it is notable for its characteristic fat, trunk and branches that are covered with stout spines, more decorative than really frightening, moreover its showy display of large hibiscus-like white to pale yellow flowers when the leaves drop in fall and winter. A mature tree in bloom can be an arresting sight — with thorns, flowers, and even seed pods fully displayed on bare branches . In spring and summer the tree is also handsome, covered with a lush foliage of bright green palmately-divided leaves. Because C. insignis is usually grown from seed it is somewhat variable and individuals may vary with respect to spines and trunk form. Mature trees are typically short and stout to around 4-18 metres tall and wide, although some may grow taller (up to 30 metres) and be more open in structure.
Derivation of specific name: The name of the species is the Latin word â€œinsignis” = remarkable, extraordinary.
Stem: Trunk bottle shaped, straight, more or less convex or enlarged in the lower part with a diameter of 1-2 m which serve to store water at drought times. The wood is tender and porous. The bark is smooth with some stretch marks, green in the young specimen, green-grey or grey in the adult ones. Both the trunk and the branches are covered by conical thorns that can become over 2.5 cm wide as the tree grows and its trunk widens.
Leaves:* Alternate, palmately-compound , composed of 5-7 leaflets, these are somewhat coriaceous, oblong-obovate, entire or denticulate, 6-7(-10) cm long and about 4 cm broad, with sharp elongated tip, glossy pale green on the upper side, green-grey in the lower one. The petiole is about 5-12 cm long.
Flowers: Solitary, are hermaphrodite and waxy, c. 15 in diameter. Pedicels 15-25 mm long. Calyx bell-shaped. Petals five white, cream-white, or yellowish white with darker longitudinal stretch marks, 8-12 cm long, 2.2-2.5 cm wide, spathulate to narrowly oblong, with only slightly undulate margin, white sericeous to villous externally, glabrous internally, white to pale pink, sometimes with occasional dark reddish striations, with a yellowish zone from mid-length to the base. Staminal tube, showy, about 5 cm long, glabrous below the appendages; the appendage lobes whitish or orange-red, glabrous to sparsely hairy, upper staminal tube glabrous, flushed pink, sometimes splitting distally to give 5 short filaments. In Ceiba insignis the stigma is red pentalobed, papillose and dry. The style is semisolid.
Blooming season (South America): Flowering May-July (October). Fruiting time Autumn.
Fruit (capsule): Ellipsoidal or pyriform, greenish, 10-15 cm long, and around 5-7 cm wide, dehiscent (when fruits reach maturity, they split open) containing a silky floss coming out of the seeds.
Seeds: Numerous black covered in hair, resembling cotton.
Similar species: This species is quite similar to Ceiba speciosa, and they may be difficult to differentiate when not in flower. Usually, Ceiba insignis has white flowers with golden throats and Ceiba speciosa's flowers are pink with white throats. However, variation does occur and sometimes Ceiba speciosa may produce paler flowers or C. insignis may have slightly pink flowers. Moreover the flowers of C. insignis have five stamens in the centre, which differentiates it from C. speciosa (besides having shorter and wider leaflets).