Autumn colour
Every October this tree turns a small garden pink.
Silk Floss Tree
Ceiba speciosa
In Spanish it is the palo borracho, the drunken stick, and the trunk is the reason: green, swollen through the middle, tapering at both ends and studded with fat conical thorns. We map 6 of them, in 6 cities.
Ceiba speciosa comes from Argentina and Brazil, stores water in that belly and flowers pink in October, when the branches are half bare and the flowers are all there is to see. The one in the small Jardim Alfredo Keil turns a whole Lisbon garden pink for a few weeks. Naples' has the widest trunk of the 53 entries the national monumental register holds for that city. Malaga's survived the remodelling of the streets around the cathedral by being built into the result. Valencia's, in the university's botanic garden, has reached 32 metres. Cadiz's, in the Parque Genoves, is undated, which is normal for a tree that puts on girth this quickly.
Lisbon
Valencia
Break open one of this tree's seed pods and you get a handful of pillow stuffing.
Malaga
In bloom
This tree survived a construction project by becoming part of the construction.
Naples
In bloom
Naples has 53 entries on Italy's national monumental register and this one has the widest trunk of the lot.
Photo: Mary Lata (CC BY 4.0)
Palermo
Palermo calls this one the drunken tree, and the trunk explains it.
Cadiz
Its name translates as the drunken stick, and one look at the trunk explains why.
Photo: Bruno Peixoto (brunopy) (CC BY 4.0)
Explore by city: Lisbon · Valencia · Malaga · Naples · Palermo · Cadiz · Prague · Brussels · every city · or browse all species.