Although San Diego is defined as a desert in terms of annual rainfall, it also has a Mediterranean climate, so if you can meet the water needs of virtually any plant, it can grow here in San Diego. There even are redwood groves at the San Diego Zoo (coming out of the polar bear exhibit) and at Safari Park (going up to Condor Ridge).
One of the more unusual trees that grows here is what I call the “cotton ball tree.” Looks like this:
The top two pictures were taken at the San Diego Zoo. The tree is so tall that I had missed it until a few years ago when it was dropping flowers and cotton balls. I asked at the Information Booth what the name of the “cotton ball tree” was. They knew exactly which tree I was talking about.
It’s a silk floss tree (Ceiba speciosa).
The lower part of the trunk often is swollen, while young tree trunks and the upper trunk and branches of older trees are covered with thorns. Roses don’t have anything on this tree!
The silk floss tree is a deciduous tree native to the tropical and subtropical forests of South America, mainly in Bolivia, Paraguay, Uruguay, northeast Argentina, and southern Brazil.
It is resistant to drought and moderate cold, and grows quite fast when water is abundant. It can get up to 82 feet tall. In an unusual twist for trees, the trunk is green, which means that it is capable of photosynthesis when leaves are absent. In older trees, the lower part of the trunk usually turns to gray. The swollen trunk stores water, as do the thorns.
The fruit is a ligneous ovoid pod, which sounds like something out of a Stephen King novel. They look like this:
Once the pods ripen, they burst open to reveal a mass of cotton balls surrounding seeds the size and color of black beans.
The cotton is used as stuffing (think pillows) and in packaging, and to make canoes, paper, and ropes. The seeds provide both edible and industrial vegetable oil.
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Photographic Art by Russel Ray Photos at Fine Art America
Wonder if that’s what’s in some of the expensive organic mattresses.
What a strange plant – thanks for checking it ou
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I guess the only thing to do is buy an expensive organic mattress and tear it apart to find out……..LOL…………..I probably shouldn’t laugh. Shortly after my wise old grandmother adopted me when I was 11, I had gone to bed when the pillow poked me. “How can a pillow poke you?” I asked. She said that the pillow had chicken feathers in it. I didn’t believe her, so the next day when I came home from school, I got a knife and sliced open the pillow. Well, guess what? Yep. Chicken feathers. And guess which little boy got the whipping of his life?
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I had had forgotten the poking feather pillows.
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You mean you had them, too?
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Oh, we longed for “expensive soft goose down ones or that new foam stuff….”
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That silk moss tree looks like my leg! It’ll be interesting if the x- ray on knee on Monday reveals my leg has indeed transmuted into one of these trees! I love the cotton balls 🙂 Very different. ..and very cool and so pretty with those pink flowers 🙂
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Right after I found out the name of it, I found one in an obscure nursery. Took it home and planted it, and the next day Jim and I put our house up for sale……………
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Super cool, I never saw this!
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No cotton ball trees in your neck of the woods?
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Nope, we have a fluffy pink ball tree in our yard but that’s not it.
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Hi Russel, There’ll be no shimmying up the cotton ball tree with thorns like that on the trunk – ouch! What an interesting and attractive tree!
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Just find an old tree and you won’t need to shimmy. The thorns will be so big that you’ll be able to walk right up the tree trunk. People will think you’re Spider Woman!
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I’ve never seen this kind of tree. Interesting how it protects itself.
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The first time I experience how it protects itself was when I accidentally backed into one while trying to get a picture of something else. My back was sore for days.
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We don’t have any of these trees in South Texas but we will have cotton balls in the fields. Very interesting!
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Do they still have cotton fields down there? They must be making a comeback after Russel Ray left South Texas………..LOL
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What a versatile tree.
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Next time I buy clothes I’m going to check the tags to see if I can find something made out of “silk floss cotton.”
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Hmmm…… if it is like kapok, apparently the cotton can’t be made into thread. But you may luck out with a jacket stuffed with silk floss cotton. http://www.botgard.ucla.edu/html/MEMBGNewsletter/Volume2number1/Bombacaceae.html But you’re the tree expert so what do I know. I didn’t even know the tree grew in Northern New Zealand. 😦
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Thanks for that link! Interesting read.
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I always see interesting plants at the zoo. The Akron Zoo has a really great flower garden that’s just as much of an attraction as any of the animals.
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The San Diego Zoo is both an internationally recognized zoo and an internationally recognized botanic garden. There are over 300,000 plants representing 3,500 plant species on its 1,900 acres. I always tell visitors to slow down and look at the plants as well as the animals. The plants won’t look back at you or do silly things, but they like being looked at, too.
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I found 2 of these trees at 610 Euclid, national city, ca. Those cottony balls and thorns had me going. So nice to describe the tree to my browser to find out what it is and immediately to you blog! One of them is full of those pods, too. I got some pics of them, too.
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Thanks for the address. Next time I’m down that way I shall check ’em out!
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Great story about the cotton balls and the tree. It reminded me of a song
I have heard from one American lady. It is called ” Don’t fence me in ”
and mentions the Cottonwood tree often. Had never known about this tree
before.
Miriam
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“Don’t Fence Me In” is a very old song, written by Cole Porter in 1934, but there are many many versions of it.
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What a fascinating tree, I have seen them in Orange County too. I guess this one wouldn’t be a fun one to climb.
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I think some of the thorns are big enough to provide footholds……….lol
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Cool! Those thorns look wicked.
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Definitely not a tree one could lean against while texting on one’s smart phone………lol
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Russel Ray, You are so many things from photographer to teacher of all you explore & so many more hats you where! I never thought of San Diego as a desert &, yet, with a Mediterranean climate! And this lesson in photos & word of the silk floss tree is an education for me as well! Your photos & details about the tree, its fruit, & trunk are fascinating! Thanks for your recent burst of “Likes” & comments on my excuseusforliving.com. My website as yours goes back to January 2012. But my website is dormant for now & may stay that way! The short story is that our old 1885 house of 44 years sold in January. We purchased a townhouse 20 minutes away here in New Jersey in February. We moved in April. As if moving & setting up & fixing up the new place were not enough, wife Geri became ill mid-May with diverticulosis of the intestine which she has had for 25-30 years. She has managed it well with few flare-ups through fiber diet & water intake. This time it was very bad. After THREE months of suffering through great pain & inflammation with 6 lab tests & 8 doctor visits, the surgeon finally operated August 12. Unfortunately, Geri was left with a temporary colostomy bag for the next 4 months or so with the expectation of surgery to reconnect. The surgeon said from what he discovered removing 8 inches of intestine; the intestine was so blocked he doesn’t know how anything was moving through it, he does not know how Geri endued the pain for three months, & someone else would have gone to the Emergency Room. What annoys us is that this surgeon treated Geri 5 weeks before surgery & did not say, “I’ll meet you in the ER!” After 5 weeks of recovery Geri can do most everything except vacuum. That’s my job. And she started driving again last week. I will reply to you comments on my website! Thanks for thinking of me. You are one of the people & websites I have wanted to reach out to all these months! Phil
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Hey, Phil. Thanks for the update. Love to Geri and you.
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Russel Ray, Thanks for the caring & we return the same to you! Phil & Geri too
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This is fascinating! Thanks for reminding me why I love the San Diego area so much!
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Thanks for stopping by my blog! I remember cotton ball trees from when we living in Costa Mesa and visited San Diego – one of my favorite cities.
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