Kapok tree

[Jedo_03]

Queensland kapok tree...
native; yellow flowered
Cochlospermum fraseri
An elegant tree - and a beautiful flower...
Bonsai..??

[Ash]

I have grown Cochlospermum gillivrayi as bonsai and it is not a difficult species to keep in a container, is quite drought tolerant, develops a semi-succulent tapering trunk and will tolerate pruning with some success. The drawback is - just like bottle trees and bombax - the branching and foliage remain too coarse for anything but the largest of very large bonsai. So like all such experiments I long ago planted mine in the ground and it is now a pretty garden tree.

Similar species I have tried - Queensland bottle tree, Whitsunday bottle tree, Bombax, Kapok, red Kurrajong - all had similar properties i.e. easy to keep but hard to style to look like a tree.

have fun
Ashley

[Jedo_03]

Thanks Ashley...
I did admire the Qld Bottle Tree - and the Red Kurrajong too...
I was told - you can snap a branch off a Qld Bottle Tree, leave it lying on the front veranda for 3 months - stick it in the garden - and it will shoot away...!!
Jedo

[Josh]

Wow, we use Kapok at work. I always thought it was from south Africa. All kapok as I know is imported. I bought some kapok back from the US first time I was there. Was fun getting through customs with it. Were would I be able to buy a Kapok tree???? very interested in getting a hold of one. Interested to see a photo of one as a bonsai.

Josh

[Jedo_03]

Hi Josh...
Don't know re buying Kapok specimens...
Where I am ATM (FNQ) Kapok Trees are abundant...
And flowering profusely...
Beautiful rich-yellow flowers...
The Tree appears to Flower and set Fruit before forming leaves...
All you see is a silvery-grey trunk and branches with heaps of bright yellow flowers...
And green seed capsules / pods the size of a fist - and the shape of a Paw-Paw...
Today - fortuitously - I witnessed a mob of Red-Tail Black Cockatoo's attacking a 10 ft tall Kapok Tree...
Wantonly pecking at its twigs... severing them just below a node...
The six twiglets would have perished on the parched earth...
So I am nourishing them in a well drained pot containing gritty medium...
Nature sometimes needs a helping hand...