The open plant encyclopedia
Snap a photo or search by any name to see how to care for it, where it comes from, whether it's safe, and a 3D model you can turn.
The plants people record most in your country, and ones that grow there wild.
Filter by what you want to do, shape, origin, country, care and safety.
Bombax costatum
Bombax costatum is a deciduous savanna tree of West and Central Africa, usually 5 to 15 m tall, that flowers red in the dry season before its leaves appear. It is rarely grown as a houseplant and is best suited to warm, sunny outdoor sites with a distinct dry season.
Bombax costatum is a tree usually reaching a height of 5 – 15 m. It flowers in the dry season before the leaves appear.
Its distribution is restricted to the savanna zones of West Africa from Senegal to the Central African Republic. It is often found on rocky hills or lateritic crusts.
The calyx is used in West African cuisine as a base of sauces. Excessive harvesting of flowering branches contributes to the decline of the species.
Ngiu Paa · Gold Coast bombax · Red silk cottontree · Cottontree
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Bombax costatum 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.
