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Taxonomy

Notes:

Publishing author: Walp. Publication: Rep. i. 329.

Physical Description

Family Bombacaceae:

Trees, usually large, often deciduous; trunks sometimes spiny, often buttressed; bark fibrous, with mucilaginous exudates; indumentum usually stellate or tufted. Leaves alternate, spiral; stipules inconspicuous, caducous; petiole pulvinate; leaf blade often palmately compound (simple and lobed in Ochroma), margin often entire. Inflorescences axillary, 1(or 2) -flowered, rarely many-flowered. Flowers bisexual, actinomorphic, large and showy. Epicalyx of 3 bracts, inconspicuous and caducous. Calyx shortly cylindrical, truncate, or irregularly 3-5-lobed, sometimes splitting. Petals 5, joined at base with androecium and falling as one unit, imbricate. Stamens usually very many (3-15 in Ceiba) ; filaments usually united in lower half into a filament tube around style, tube sometimes lobed, with stamens in 5 groups with completely united filaments and sessile anthers; anthers usually 1-celled, apparently 2-celled and non-septate in Ceiba, sometimes many anthers united into an apparent many-celled "super-anther"; pollen usually spheroidal, ± smooth, reticulate; staminodes absent. Ovary superior, syncarpous, carpels usually 5; ovules 2 to many per locule, axile, anatropous; style 5-lobed. Fruit a 5-valved capsule, or hard and indehiscent (e.g., Adansonia), many-seeded with seeds often embedded in endocarp hairs (kapok), less often fruit winged or juicy and few-seeded. Seeds sometimes winged.

About 30 genera and ca. 250 species: found widely in tropics, especially tropical America; three genera (two introduced) and five species (two introduced) in China.

See the comments under the Malvaceae (p. 264) for the relationships of the Bombacaceae.

Durio Adanson was at one time associated with this family but has always been regarded as anomalous and molecular data show it to be most closely related to the Helicteroideae (Sterculiaceae) but so distinct morphologically that it might better be placed in its own family or subfamily.^[1]

Genus Pachira:

Trees, sometimes deciduous, spiny and/or buttressed. Leaves palmately compound; leaflets 3-11, with basal joint, sometimes petiolulate, margin entire or serrate. Flowers bisexual, solitary or 2- or 3-fascicled, axillary, pedicellate; pedicel shorter than 10 cm; bracteoles 2 or 3. Calyx cup-shaped to tubular, adaxially glabrous, truncate to lobed, often with glands abaxially, persistent, sometimes accrescent. Petals spatulate to linear, yellowish green, white, or reddish, abaxially tomentose. Stamens 90-1000 in fascicles of 7-10, connate into tube at base; anthers reniform. Ovary 5-locular; ovules many; style exserted; stigma 5-lobed. Fruit nearly oblong or nearly pyriform, woody or leathery, loculicidally dehiscent into 5 valves, inner surface long woolly. Seeds irregularly scariform-cuneate, large, to 2.5 cm, glabrous, seed coat fragile, smooth.

About 50 species: tropical America; one species (introduced) in China.^[2]

Similar Species

Members of the genus Pachira:

There are approximately 93 species, subspecies, varieties, forms, and cultivars in this genus: P. acuatica · P. affinis · P. alba · P. amazonica · P. angusta · P. aquatica (Guiana Chestnut) · P. aquatica var. manausensis · P. aquatica var. occidentalis · P. aquatica var. surinamensis · P. aracamuniana · P. arenaria · P. aurea · P. barrigon · P. bracteolata · P. brevipes · P. calophylla · P. campestris · P. cardonae · P. commersonii · P. coriacea · P. cowanii · P. cubensis · P. cyathophora · P. decaphylla · P. dolichocalyx · P. duckei · P. dugandeana · P. elegans · P. emarginata · P. faroense · P. faroensis · P. fastuosa · P. fendleri · P. flaviflora · P. fuscolepidota · P. glabra · P. gracilis · P. gracilis bolivarensis · P. gracilis subsp. bolivarensis · P. grandiflora · P. humilis · P. imperialis · P. insignis (Malabar Chestnut) · P. liesneri · P. loddigesii · P. longiflora · P. longifolia · P. lukayensis · P. macrantha · P. macrocalyx · P. macrocarpa · P. marginata · P. mawarinumae · P. minor · P. morae · P. multilobata · P. mutisiana · P. nervosa · P. nitida · P. nukakica · P. obovata · P. obtusa · P. oleagina · P. oleaginea · P. orinocensis · P. palmata · P. paraensis · P. patinoi · P. petropolitana · P. pseudofaroensis · P. pulchra · P. punga-schunkei · P. pustulifera · P. quinalum · P. quinata · P. retusa · P. robynsii · P. rufescens · P. rupicola · P. rurrenabaqueana · P. sessilis · P. sordida · P. speciosa · P. spruceana · P. stenopetala · P. subandina · P. tepuiensis · P. tocantina · P. tomentosa · P. trinitensis · P. utiarityi · P. villosula · P. yapacanae

Bibliography

• Li Hen. 1984. Bombacaceae. In: Feng Kuo-mei, ed., Fl. Reipubl. Popularis Sin. 49(2): 102-112.

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Notes

Contributors:

• The International Plant Names Index. Accessed Jan 19, 2007.

Identifiers:

• Globally Unique Identifier: urn:lsid:ipni.org:names:562649-1
• Zipcode Zoo Species Identifier: 1213563

Footnotes:

1. Qiner Yang & Michael G. Gilbert "Bombacaceae". in Flora of China Vol. 12 Page 264, 299. Published by Science Press (Beijing) and Missouri Botanical Garden Press. Online at EFloras.org.
2. Qiner Yang & Michael G. Gilbert "Pachira". in Flora of China Vol. 12 Page 299. Published by Science Press (Beijing) and Missouri Botanical Garden Press. Online at EFloras.org.