Species
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Ceiba speciosa (A.St.-Hil., A.Juss. & Cambess.) Ravenna

Ceiba orquidea, Silk Floss Tree, flor de mayo, floss-silktree

Climate known 58 photographs
Add one to my plants Sow seed

Every figure on this page is derived from public data by a stated rule and says its source; nothing here is written by a person or a model, except the Wikipedia passage, which is quoted and marked as such. How it is made.

Summary

Ceiba speciosa, the floss silk tree, is a species of deciduous tree that is native to the tropical and subtropical forests of South America. It has several local common names, such as palo borracho, or árbol del puente, samu'ũ, or paineira. In Bolivia, it is called toborochi, meaning "tree of refuge" or "sheltering tree". In the USA it often is called the silk floss tree. More on Wikipedia ›

The opening of Wikipedia, “Ceiba speciosa”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written. Kept separate from everything derived here.

About the genus · Ceiba

Ceiba is a genus of trees in the family Malvaceae, native to tropical and subtropical areas of the Americas and tropical West Africa. Some species can grow to 70 m (230 ft) tall or more, with a straight, largely branchless trunk that culminates in a huge, spreading canopy, and buttress roots that can be taller than a grown person. The best-known, and most widely cultivated, species is kapok, Ceiba pentandra, one of several trees known as kapok. More on Wikipedia ›

The opening of Wikipedia, “Ceiba”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written.

Family
Malvaceae
Described by
(A.St.-Hil., A.Juss. & Cambess.) Ravenna
Native to
Bolivia, Peru, Brazil West-Central +6
Wild records
1086 in range· 655 open

At a glance

Warmest month
28°C
Jan, mean day; nights 20 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
1441mm/yr
12 wet months · peak Jan 216 mm (CHELSA)
Light
21–38DLI
mol/m²/day, winter to summer, open sky (CHELSA shortwave)
In short condensed by rule from the cultivation cards · not written by a person
Rain rule: a summer growing season, April to September in the northern hemisphere (October to March at the habitat, southern). Habitat rain 1441 mm a year, wettest January at 216 mm, driest August at 42 mm (habitat calendar, southern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 21 to 38 mol/m²/day. Cold floor 8.7 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).
Each sentence is one card's own one-line form, written by the same rule as the card (Its year, Rain, Light, Temperature); the note cannot say what a card does not. Months are given for the northern hemisphere (set your site in Settings to change this), and the habitat's own alongside. The cards · the figures.

Also known as Bombax aculeatum Vell.; Chorisa speciosa A.St.-Hil.; Chorisia speciosa A.St.-Hil., A.Juss. & Cambess.; Chorisia speciosa var. minor Chodat; Chorisia speciosa var. paraguariensis Hassl.

Cultivation

Its year Rain rule: a summer growing season, April to September in the northern hemisphere (October to March at the habitat, southern).

This species’ habitat figures, and what two fixed rules read from them.

The rain rule reads a summer growing season: 70% of the year's rain (1029 mm of 1441 mm) falls in October to March, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 23.3 °C against a yearly mean of 21.1 °C). Months are the habitat's, southern hemisphere; shifted six months for a northern-hemisphere collection: April to September.

Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the envelope cells: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve gives a season to reverse. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain Habitat rain 1441 mm a year, wettest January at 216 mm, driest August at 42 mm (habitat calendar, southern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

1441 mm a year at the habitat, 1029 mm of it October to March. Wettest month January at 216 mm, driest August at 42 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 1106 mm to 1994 mm (10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year) (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; habitat calendar, southern hemisphere).

CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the envelope cells. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light Open sky over the habitat: 21 to 38 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 21 to 38 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 15, the highest 90th-percentile month 46).

CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.

Warmth and air Cold floor 8.7 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell is 8.7 °C, the absolute minimum 3.8 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 35.5 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 12.5 °C in July (across the envelope cells 8.1 °C to 17.9 °C), warmest day 28.2 °C in January (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: 8.7 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell (NASA POWER).

NASA POWER daily minima and maxima 1981–2024 at the typical cell, lapse-corrected to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA. The cold floor is the figure named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 59 to 64% across the year (monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the envelope cells.

The figures the cards read from are in Climate below, and where they came from in Natural habitat.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat climate through the yearMean day from 22 °C in Jul to 28 °C in Jan; mean night from 13 °C in Jul to 20 °C in Jan. The cold quarter, Jun to Aug, is the three months around the coldest night. 1441 mm of rain a year, most in Jan. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 731 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was 3.8 °C and the 99th-percentile day 35.5 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.10°20°30°40°35.5° 99th-percentile day (undated)3.8° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400mm rainDLI 21–38RH 59–64 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 731 habitat cells cold quarter: the three months around the coldest night extremes over 44 years at the typical cell, marked at the edge: undated DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C28 / 26–3128 / 26–3027 / 24–3026 / 22–2923 / 19–2722 / 17–2622 / 16–2624 / 18–2925 / 20–3026 / 22–3027 / 23–3028 / 25–30
Night °C20 / 18–2320 / 18–2319 / 17–2318 / 14–2215 / 11–2013 / 9–1913 / 8–1814 / 9–1915 / 11–2017 / 13–2118 / 15–2219 / 17–23
Rain mm216 / 121–311177 / 117–243160 / 118–238106 / 69–18782 / 32–15353 / 13–14049 / 8–12942 / 17–10580 / 45–155129 / 90–193153 / 113–220194 / 112–290
DLI37 / 33–4437 / 33–4033 / 30–3428 / 24–3223 / 18–2921 / 15–2822 / 17–3027 / 22–3430 / 26–3635 / 32–3838 / 34–4337 / 33–46
RH %64 / 58–6963 / 59–6964 / 60–6963 / 60–6863 / 58–6662 / 57–6661 / 54–6559 / 51–6459 / 53–6561 / 56–6662 / 58–6763 / 57–68

Each figure is the median across the 731 grid cells holding the 1050 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. Extremes and elevation were read at the typical cell 2197:2721 (-19.875, -43.925). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 3.8 °C, 1st-percentile night 8.7 °C, 99th-percentile day 35.5 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Envelope: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 731 distinct grid cells holding the 1050 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 2197:2721 (its coldest month's mean night nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell -20.00_-43.750, lapse-corrected -186 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 814 m (cell mean).

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP; the marker is where the records are densest and decides nothing: the climate was read across every in-range record's cell, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeBolivia, Peru, Brazil West-Central, Brazil Northeast, Brazil Southeast, Brazil North, Brazil South, Argentina Northeast, Paraguay· introduced: Ethiopia, India
Kew's description“tree” · “seasonally dry tropical”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker-23.133, -46.559 · in the densest population, 350 records (32% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 1086 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 655 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 74 km away. 292 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 36 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km and stay on the map but off the climate.
The map markerthe map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population inside the densest 2° block of the 1086 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Ceiba speciosaCeiba speciosaCeiba speciosaCeiba speciosaCeiba speciosaCeiba speciosaCeiba speciosaCeiba speciosa

Photographs: (c) Vitoria Fortes, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2); (c) Conrado Pável de Oliveira, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) Romi Galeota Lencina, some rights reserved (CC BY) (3); no rights reserved · CC0 (2).

Photographs: iNaturalist did not answer when this page was built; what is shown came from the sources that did.

Papers naming this species

Works whose title or abstract names Ceiba speciosa, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

Highly effective adsorption of synthetic phenol effluent by a novel activated carbon prepared from fruit wastes of the Ceiba speciosa forest species
Dison S.P. Franco, Jordana Georgin, Matias S. Netto, Daniel Allasia (2021) · Journal of environmental chemical engineering
Classificação de sementes florestais quanto ao comportamento no armazenamento
Letícia Renata de Carvalho, Edvaldo Aparecido Amaral da Silva, Antônio Cláudio Davide (2006) · Revista Brasileira de Sementes
An evaluation of non-destructive methods to estimate total chlorophyll content
Daniela Cassol, F. S. P. De Silva, Antelmo Ralph Falqueto, Marcos Antônio Bacarin (2008) · Photosynthetica
Pollen Collected and Foraging Activities of Frieseomelitta varia (Lepeletier) (Hymenoptera: Apidae) in an Urban Landscape
Kátia Paula Aleixo, Letícia Biral de Faria, Carlos Alberto Garófalo, Vera Lúcia Imperatriz-Fonseca (2013) · Sociobiology
Produção de mudas de Ceiba speciosa em diferentes volumes de tubetes utilizando o biossólido como substrato
Pedro Lima Filho, Paulo Sérgio dos Santos Leles, Alan Henrique Marques de Abreu, Aline Cássia da Fonseca (2019) · Ciência Florestal
Ceiba speciosa (A. St.-Hil.) Seeds Oil: Fatty Acids Profiling by GC-MS and NMR and Bioactivity
Sergio Rosselli, Rosa Tundis, Maurizio Bruno, Mariarosaria Leporini (2020) · Molecules
Detection, transmission, pathogenicity and chemical treatment of fungi in Ceiba speciosa seeds
Marília Lazarotto, Marlove Fátima Brião Muniz, A. F. dos Santos (2010) · Summa Phytopathologica
Dendrochronology and dendroclimatology of Ceiba speciosa (A. St.-Hil.) Ravenna (Malvaceae) exposed to urban pollution in Rio de Janeiro city, Brazil
Thaís Jorge de Vasconcellos, Mário Tomazello Filho, Cátia Henriques Callado (2019) · Dendrochronologia
Preparation of nitrogen and sulfur co-doped tubular porous carbon derived from Ceiba speciosa flowers for supercapacitors
Shuaishuai Qiu, Yan Fu, Wenjun Lei, Jie Chang (2025) · Journal of Energy Storage
Morphoanatomy and ecophysiology of tree seedlings in semideciduous forest during high-light acclimation in nursery
Anderson Kikuchi Calzavara, Edmílson Bianchini, Thaís Mazzanatti, Halley Caixeta Oliveira (2015) · Photosynthetica

Similar habitat climate the 6 species whose habitat climate is nearest this one's: mean day and night, month by month, and rain on a log scale, in calendar order, so a habitat with the same seasons six months out is far, not near. Nothing else counts: not range, not family.

Other Ceiba 1 in the reference

History & registers

Where this page came from built 2026-09-20 · dossier v2 · node
gbif.species answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.synonyms answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.vernacular answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
wcvp.distribution answered
gbif.occurrences answeredGBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.3h4zam
climate answered
wikidata answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
wikipedia answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped
inat.taxon not askedcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive)
inat.photos.wild answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped
inat.photos.cultivated nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
commons nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
gbif.media answered
openalex answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped

Every upstream is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, or refused. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 141 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.