kapok tree

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Noun

kapok tree (plural kapok trees)

1. (botany) The silk-cotton tree (Bombax ceiba), an Asian tree with red flowers.
   • 2015, Labodalih Sembiring, translating Eka Kurniawan, Man Tiger, Verso 2015, p. 111:

     The coastal morning glory was left to creep up a bamboo pole that leaned against the kapok tree.

2. Ceiba pentandra, a tree of the tropical Americas and west-central Africa, with white flowers, cultivated in south-east Asia for its seed fibre.
   • 1998, Barbara Kingsolver, The Poisonwood Bible, Faber and Faber 2013, p. 123:

     Right smack in the middle of the village is a huge kapok tree, which is where they get together and have their market every fifth day.

3. Two trees with yellow flowers native to northern Australia and Papua New Guinea
   1. Cochlospermum gillivraei
   2. Cochlospermum fraseri

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