English: Red Ceiba.
Spiny cedar
Spanish: Cedro espino.
Genus: 46 species
Region: Central America, South America, Colombia, Venezuela; central America, Panama, Costa Rica, Nicaragua.
Habitat: lowland wet forest; dry to very dry, or wet tropical forests; open forests; well-drained, humus-rich loamy, often gravelly soils; upper slopes of low hills and ridges; from sea level to around 900 metres.
Culture: vulnerable due to over exploitation and habitat loss.
Use: shelter for coffee plantations; hard-wearing wood for furniture and instrument; seed fibres as filling material for life jackets and as insulation material.
BotanyTree; deciduous; fast-growing; crown rather wide, spreading, of heavy branches; 6 to 40 metres tall; irregular bole is armed with hard, sharp prickles.
Stem: 15 to 180 cm in diameter; buttressed.
Seeds: seed capsules contain water-repellent, non-spinnable cellulose fibres