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Shaving Brush Tree

Pseudobombax ellipticum

Also called Shavingbrush Tree

In Singapore: Shaving-brush Tree, Red Silk Cotton (Cultivated in Singapore)

Shaving Brush Tree
Photo: Maria do Carmo M. Iannacone, CC BY 3.0

Pseudobombax ellipticum is a deciduous caudex tree from Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean, grown for its showy pink, cotton-candy-like flowers with long stamens. Give it a warm, sunny spot with dry conditions between waterings, as it stores water in its succulent trunk and branches.

Family
Malvaceae (Mallow family)
Grows as
Tree
Light
Full sun
Water
Water deeply then let the soil dry out almost completely; water sparingly in cool or dormant periods.
Soil
Fast-draining sandy or gritty mix; avoid heavy, waterlogged soil.
Temperature
18–30 °C; protect below 10 °C
How easy
Moderate
Native range
Mexico to Nicaragua, Caribbean
Climate
wet tropical

About

Pseudobombax ellipticum, with common names including Coquito, is a species of plant in the subfamily Bombacoideae of the family Malvaceae.

Where it grows

The tree is native to southern Mexico, El Salvador, Guatemala, Hispaniola, Honduras, Nicaragua and Cuba.

Uses

Uses include firewood and wood for carving handicrafts.

[Contains information from Leaf Area Index (LAI) and Heritage Trees from data.gov.sg (National Parks Board), made available under the terms of the Singapore Open Data Licence version 1.0]

Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Pseudobombax ellipticum 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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