Name: Kapok
Family: Kapok family
Genus: Kapok
Aliases: Beacon Tree, Red Cotton, Climbing Branch Flower, Hero Flower, Hero Tree
- Morphological characteristics:
Deciduous large trees, up to 25 m tall, with grey-white bark, the trunks of young trees usually have thick, conical spines; the branches are flattened. Palmate compound leaves, leaflets 5-7 pieces, oblong to oblong lanceolate, 10-16 cm long, 3.5-5.5 cm wide, apex tapering, broad or tapering at the base, full margin, glabrous on both sides, capsule oblong, blunt, 10-15 cm long, 4.5-5 cm thick, densely covered with gray-white long soft hairs and star-like soft hairs; seeds are mostly, inverted ovate, smooth. The flowering period is from March to April, and the fruit ripens in summer.
——Garden use:
The tree shape is tall and majestic, the spring red flowers bloom, the flowers are large and beautiful, the tree posture is majestic, it is an excellent street tree, shade tree and landscape tree, and can also be cultivated and ornamental in the garden.
- Ecological habits:
Prefers warm, dry and sunny environments. Not hardy, slightly resistant to moisture, avoid standing water. Drought resistant, anti-pollution, strong wind resistance, deep roots, fast growth, strong germination. The growth temperature is 20 ~ 30 °C, the winter temperature is not less than 5 °C, and it is advisable to use deep, fertile and well-drained neutral or slightly acidic sandy soils.
——Main production areas:
Kapok is found in India, Sri Lanka, Indochina, Malaysia, Indonesia to the Philippines, northern Australia and China. In China, it is distributed in Yunnan, Sichuan, Guizhou, Guangxi, Jiangxi, Guangdong, Fujian, Taiwan and other subtropical provinces and regions.
——Management and maintenance:
Sowing and propagation. Tillers can also be divided into tillers or cuttings to propagate, the capsule is easy to burst after ripening, and the seeds are scattered with cotton wool, so it is necessary to harvest before the fruit cracks.
It is advisable to use large-sized seedlings for green planting, generally as a lone plant or column plant, with a row spacing of 8 meters× 10 meters or more. All year round can be out of the nursery, requiring seedlings with soil balls to plant, the size of the soil balls according to the diameter of the seedling chest, the larger the chest diameter of the soil balls, the larger the size of the soil balls, and the soil balls are packaged to prevent damage to the soil balls during transportation; do not prune the side branches when transplanting, so as not to affect the crown shape, just remove 3/4 of the leaves, and at the same time to drench the root water, the first 30 days of water 1-2 times a day.
Kapok insect pests, mainly for the new shoots and leaves of the leaf beetles, ruler moths and small green leafhoppers, production is mostly booby traps for control; dry moths have kapok wee beetle, tianniu, etc., mainly to the kapok weevil larvae harm the marrow heart, especially in the top part, damage the channeling tissue, hinder the transport of materials, and then spread throughout the tree, so that the new shoots do not emerge, the bark from the top began to die. The control can be controlled with a pesticide 7 times the effect of the pesticide with the trade name sweeping thousand insects. It has been reported that potassium fertilizer plays a controlling role, and nitrogen fertilizer deepens the degree of damage, which can be used for scientific fertilization.
- Plant culture
Flower Language:
Cherish the people around you, cherish the happiness in front of you.
Kapok is weird, and it's weird because it's all green in spring, autumn, and winter. But in the summer, everything will be different. It began to unleash magic, little by little to free the most evil and enchanting temperament in its heart. It drove the green to extinction, the bare branches bloomed with bright and seductive flowers, and the dry wood was burning like a fierce fire, and the color was monotonous but not low-key.
Kapok trees belong to fast-growing, strong positive tree species, the canopy is always higher than the nearby surrounding trees, in order to fight for the sun and rain, Kapok this spirit of hard work and bright fire-like big red flowers, is known as the hero tree, hero flower.