ABSTRACT
This chapter provides the information on uses, folk medicine, chemistry, germplasm, distribution, ecol-ogy, cultivation, harvesting, yields, energy, and biotic factors of Silk Cotton Tree. Silky fiber from pods used for stuffing protective clothing, pillows, lifesavings devices; as insulation material, mainly against heat and cold, because of its low thermal conductivity, and sound, and for caulking various items, as canoes. Wrapped around the trunk of a fruit tree, it is supposed to discourage leaf-cutting ants. Deciduous, umbraculiform, buttressed, armed or unarmed, medium to large trees to 70 m tall, more often to 33 m tall, spines conical when young; branches horizontal in whorls and prickly when young. The African kapok tree is divided into the caribaea-forest type and the caribaea-savannah type. According to Zeven and Zhukovsky, it was believed that the kapok tree originated in an area which was later divided by the Atlantic Ocean, so this species is native both to America and Africa.
