Bombax
Bombax rhodognaphalon
In Swahili this tree is known as msufi and msufi pori (pori means bush) . In English it is sometimes called wild kapok.
Bombax is mostly found in tall woodland and coastal forest. It is another very distinctive tree, in the same family as baobab. It has a similar single stout trunk and sparse branches. It grows 35m tall, with a long, straight trunk, often unbranched to 20m. At typical tree provides about 6m 3 of timber. The bark is green-grey, photosynthesising when young, later turning grey but remaining smooth even when old. Note that this species resembles the common introduced ornamental Ceiba pentandra (kapok). Before the start of the rains the tree flowers. The large white flowers have narrow petals and a tube of fused pollen-producing stamen. These are followed by distinctive woody capsules that split open along their length to disperse the seeds, each of which is surrounded by a fluffy brown ball of fibres. These seeds float for many metres aiding seed dispersal. The hand-like (digitate) leaves form an umbrella-shaped canopy above other trees, and emerge after the flowers.
The reddish-brown soft timber has a low density and quite coarse grain, so this species is unsuitable for making high quality products. The fibre from around the seeds was once traded but is now not used.
 B. rhodognaphalon flowers
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 B. rhodognaphalon seeds
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 B. rhodognaphalon bark
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