Science Fair Project Encyclopedia
Bombacaceae
Adansonia – Baobab
Bombax – Silk-cotton tree
Ceiba – Kapok
Durio – Durian
Ochroma – Balsa
The Bombacaceae is a family of tropical trees in the order Malvales, closely related to the mallow family (Malvaceae), and now usually included within it, being distinguishable from that family only by the smooth pollen and larger mature tree stature. The family includes 30 genera with about 250 species of often very large trees (Ceiba pentandra can reach a height of 70 m).
Several of the genera are commercially important, producing timber (e.g., Balsa Ochroma lagopus), edible fruit (e.g., Durian Durio spp.) and useful fibres (e.g., Kapok Ceiba pentandra). The Baobabs or "Bottle trees" (Adansonia spp.) are important icon trees in tropical Africa, Australia and Madagascar, noted for their immensely stout trunk development, a water storage mechanism.
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