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Monkey's Comb

Apeiba tibourbou

Monkey's Comb
Photo: Roger Culos, CC BY-SA 3.0

Apeiba tibourbou is a fast-growing tree from the Malvaceae family, native from Mexico through Central America to tropical South America. It is grown mainly as a fibre crop for paper and is a tree of wet tropical forest, not a houseplant.

Family
Malvaceae (Mallow family)
Grows as
Tree
Light
Full sun
Water
Keep the soil evenly moist during establishment, then water during dry spells.
Soil
Well-drained, fertile soil; tolerates a range of tropical soils.
Temperature
20–32 °C; protect below 10 °C
How easy
Moderate
Native range
Mexico to S. Trop. America
Climate
wet tropical

About

Apeiba tibourbou is a tree native to Caatinga and Cerrado vegetation in Brazil, and Costa Rica. It is used as an alternative fiber crop to make paper. It is found in Mexico, Central America, and the northern part of South America.

This fast-growing tree typically reaches 15 meters tall, though it can reach 25 meters in some habitats. The star-shaped yellow flowers give way to dry capsules covered with soft green spines. The leaves are pointed at the tip and rounded at the base, 10–30 centimeters long and 6–12 centimeters wide, borne on petioles 1–3 centimeters long. The leaf margins are lightly serrated, and the veins are lightly hairy.

Other Apeiba plants

Apeiba albiflora

Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Apeiba tibourbou by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.

The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.

Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.

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