Bombax ceiba Linn. Bombax malabaricum DC. Bombax heptaphyllum Can. Gossampinus heptaphylla (Houtt.) Bakh.

Common names: Bobor (Ilk.) Buboi-gubat (Tag.) Malabulak (Tag.) Taglinau (Tag.) Taroktok (Ilk.) Bombax (Eng.) Indian kapok (Engl.) Red cotton tree (Engl.) Red silk cotton tree (Eng.) Mu mian (Chin.)

Bombax ceiba is a universe unto itself. Also known as the red silk cotton tree, semul, Indian kapok or Indian cottonwood, this deciduous tree’s open, red, cup-shaped, nectar-rich flowers are a huge draw for birds and insects between January and March. In return, the flowers are pollinated by its visitors. No one loses. Fallen flowers are consumed by sambar and chital. Once the morning rush of birds winds down, Hanuman langurs take over around noon. They eat up whole flower buds and carelessly crush quite a few flowers! But none of this damages the forest. In fact, the service of dispersing seeds ends up enhancing the quality and capacity of the forest. Interestingly, the large flowers usually appear when the tree is leafless. The flowers hold numerous stamens and generally open up soon after midnight. Birds fascinate me and the cottonwood tree even more so. Birds not only visit the flowers for nectar but also for the water that collects in them! Botany Buboi-gubat is a large tree growing to a height of 25 to 30 meters or more. Trunk is up to 3 meters in diameter, covered with few or many, very large conical prickles with corky bases. Leaves are deciduous and smooth. Leaflets are 5 to 9, oblong or oblong-lanceolate, 10 to 20 centimeters long. Flowers are large, red, 8 to 10 centimeters long, appearing before the leaves, fascicled at or borne near the ends of the branches. Capsules are hard, woody, oblong, about 15 centimeters long. Valves are silky within. Seeds are numerous, smooth, obovate and embedded in silky hairs. Distribution

Found in Abra, Bulacan, Nueva Ecija, Bataan and Rizal Provinces in Luzon; in Mindoro; in Camiguin de Misamis; and in Mindanao.

Scattered in secondary and primary forests, at low and medium altitudes.

Also reported from India to southern China, and southward to Sumatra and Java.

Uses 

Folkloric Roots used for diarrhea, dysentery, boils, diabetes, snake bites, leucorrhea,.

Roots used as restorative for phthisis.

Roots externally applied for swellings and rheumatic pains.

Tap root used for gonorrhea and dysentery; also as an emetic.

Bark used externally as paste for inflammation and skin eruptions.

Stems and bark used for headaches, snake bites, asthma, dental caries.

Gum used for diarrhea, dysentery, menorrhagia. Fruits used for urinary problems.

Leaves, ground and mixed with milk, used for urgency and painful urination.

Leaves, ground into a paste, used for skin eruptions.

Flower petals, squeezed and soaked in human's or cow's milk, used as soothing application for infant's conjunctivitis.

Dry young fruit used for calculous affections and chronic inflammation of the kidney and urinary bladder; used for strangury and all causes of mechanical dysuria.

Fruit used for weakness of the genitalia.

Seeds, alone or combined withy cumin and anise-seeds and an eighth part of silicious bamboo secretion, used for gonorrhea and associated urethral discharge, chronic cystitis, consumption, catarrhal infections

"Cotton" used externally for padding splints and covering burnt and inflamed surfaces.