The Kapok Tree of Hong Kong Park

The road that runs past Hong Kong Park, Cotton Tree Drive, takes its name from this kind of tree. Kapok is the cotton tree, and this one stands 23 metres tall inside the park. Nothing on record ties this particular kapok to the road's name, but it shows you what the name means. Among the park's registered trees it is the odd one out. The banyans and figs around it are built for width, with trunks up to 2.71 metres across and crowns spreading more than thirty metres. The kapok has a trunk 86 centimetres through and a crown only 15 metres wide. It has put almost everything into height. Another registered kapok in the park reaches 16 metres on a thinner trunk, so this is the taller of the two by seven metres. Kapoks flower on bare branches in late winter, after the leaves have dropped, so in flower the tree looks nothing like the banyans beside it. Nobody has fixed when this one flowers. If you have stood under it in bloom, tell us the month. The park's outdoor areas open from six in the morning until eleven at night, and the tree was inspected and recorded alive at the end of August 2026. The register gives no age, and the month of its flowers is the question we would most like answered.