flora

Silk Cotton Tree

Ceiba pentandra

Where to See It Forest reserves and old estates, the interior

The giant of the Grenadian forest, the silk cotton, or kapok, towers above the canopy on great buttressed roots. Old and immense, these trees are wrapped in island folklore, long said to be the haunt of spirits and left standing out of respect. Their pods burst into a silky fibre once used to fill pillows and life jackets the world over.

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