The Kapok (Ceiba pentandra) Tree

 

By Sarah Shoup

 

 

The Kapok tree (Ceiba pentandra) is a keystone species in its native range, as well as being highly valued by people.  This emergent tree is native, and fairly common, in tropical rain forests ranging from Mexico to southern Brazil (Woodward…[updated 2007]).  Kapoks have been venerated by indigenous people for thousands of years, and provide many practical resources for people today.

 

 

 

Figure 1.  Kapok trees are native to Central and South America and grow in rain forest habitats from southern Mexico

 

 to southern Brazil.  Notice the buttress roots in the image to the right. 

 

(www.lanierbb.com/Latin_America/index.html; www.kingsnake.com/westindian/viridaeplantae5.html)

 

 

 

 

Ceiba pentandra is the largest tree in many parts of Central and South America.  It can grow to be 80 m tall and 3 m in diameter, with 10 m tall buttresses to support its gargantuan size (Janzen 1983).  Buttressed roots are an adaptation for tall trees to resist stress from wind and to provide mechanical support for the weight of the tree (Janzen 1983).  Mature C. pentandras are found in the canopy or as an emergent tree, its umbrella-shaped top towering meters above other canopy trees (Woodward…[updated 2007]).  Characteristic of a shade intolerant tree, Kapoks will sometimes play the role of a pioneer tree, colonizing abandoned fields during secondary succession.  Their need for high light also leads them to grow along forest margins and river banks.  They can grow quite rapidly; rates of 4 m per year have been recorded.  Their leaves are palmately compound, with five to eight leaflets.  (Janzen 1983).

A diverse ecological community thrives in the Kapok’s spreading canopy.  The branches are generally laden with epiphytes.  Pools that form in the crevices of the epiphytic leaves provide the ideal microhabitat for many species of amphibians to lay their eggs and raise tadpoles.  Innumerable species of insects and reptiles may be found among the branches as well.   Several species of birds frequent the Kapok canopy (Woodward…[updated 2007]), including the majestic and endangered Harpy Eagle, which favors Kapok trees as roosting sites (Harpy Eagle).

 

 

Figure 2. A Harpy Eagle landing on a Kapok branch. (www.santours.com/naturetravel.htm)

 

 

 

 

            Kapok trees have a distinctive reproductive cycle that often corresponds with the dry season.  Flower buds mature during the dry season, signaling the tree to drop its leaves (Janzen 1983).  This leaves the flowers exposed for pollinators and the subsequent fruit exposed for dispersal. Bats are the primary pollinators of Ceiba pentandra. The flowers have characteristics appropriate for bat pollination: they are small (3 cm), have white or pink petals, open at night, have a strong scent, and provide ample amounts of pollen and nectar (Janzen 1983).  The seeds of the Kapok are surrounded by fluffy fibers that assist in wind dispersal (Janzen 1983).  Oddly, the Kapok does not produce flowers every year, and may go as many as five to ten years without flowering.  In the absence of reproduction, new leaves will grow within two weeks.  The replacement of its leaves still serves the purpose of shedding any leaves that had become infested with disease or parasites (Janzen 1983). 

             Currently humans use Kapok trees for a variety of reasons.  The fruit fibers are covered with a waxy substance (Woodward…[updated 2007]) that gives it the characteristics of being water-resistant and light weighted, which make them ideal for stuffing pillows, lifejackets, mattresses, and saddles (Janzen 1983).  The wood of a Kapok tree has low commercial value because it is soft and light, which has undoubtedly kept it from becoming endangered like so many other rain forest trees.  Even so, more and more Ceiba trees are being cut down for pulpwood and plywood (Woodward…[updated 2007]).

            Kapok trees have been venerated by indigenous people for thousands of years.  The Maya believed that a great Ceiba tree stands in the center of the earth: its roots extend into the underworld while its branches uphold the heavens (Kapok, Ceiba…updated Feb. 2008).  When a person dies, their spirit would ascend to the sky by climbing a vine hanging from this transcendent tree.  Some of reverence remains among people today, as witnessed by the fact that Ceiba trees will often be left unharmed while the jungle around them is cut to make pastures (Woodward…[updated 2007]).  The spiritual significance of the Kapok tree is why I chose to write about this plant.

 

Kapok Habitat: the Tropcial Rainforest

 

Kapok trees grow in tropical broadleaf forests (both wet and dry) in the Americas.  Tropical forests contain some of the highest biodiversity found in the world.  In fact, an estimated half of the world’s species resides in the rainforest.  The immense density of plants encountered in rainforests make these regions incredibly important in producing the world’s oxygen.  An estimated 20% of the world’s oxygen is created by the Amazonian rainforest alone (Rainforest Facts). 

Unfortunately, tropical rainforests are being deforested at astounding rates.  In the last fifty years, the percent coverage of tropical forests in the world fell from 15% to 6%.  Currently, 150 acres are destroyed every day, totaling 78 million acres lost per year (Rainforest Facts).  The two most extensive reasons for deforestation in the tropics are logging (Rainforest Facts) and clearing for agriculture (Holl 1999). 

Tropical forest trees are cut down to produce several products.  Many developed countries supply a market for tropical woods, such as teak and mahogany (Rainforest Facts).  The demand for these products increases their value, which increases the extent to which the rainforests are destroyed in the process of extracting the trees.  In addition to timber, other products produced by rainforest trees include wood chipboard, cardboard packaging, and paper.  The paper industry has a high demand for tropical wood; industrialized nations (including the United States) consume 200 million tons of wood each year in paper production (Rainforest Facts).

The aftermath of logging can be more destructive than logging itself.  Logging operations involve building roads that cut into the rainforest.  Once the companies have extracted the timber, these roads are quickly colonized by people who clear more forest for subsistence agriculture, mining, or more logging (Butler).

Clearing for agriculture has been cited at the primary reason for tropical deforestation (Holl 1999).  Agriculture, which includes crops and animals, can be divided into two subsections: subsistence and commercial.  One source estimates that half of deforestation occurs on small-scale plots for the purpose of survival (Butler²).  Large-scale agriculture is unsustainable on tropical land because copious amounts of fertilizer are necessary to retain decent crop yields (Butler ³).  Erosion and suseptability to pests are two other consequences of commercial agriculture (Butler ³).

Even though significant patches of forest may be left intact after logging or clearing for agriculture, the forest ecosystem is often severely disrupted.   The process of dividing forests into patches across a landscape is called forest fragmentation.  Forest fragmentation disrupts ecosystems because pollinators and seed dispersers are much less likely to travel from patch to patch (Rainforest Facts).  Fragmentation also had severely detrimental impacts on organisms that require large tracts of land to survive.  In addition, fragmentation creates an “edge effect.”  Habitats at edges are significantly different from forest interiors, and thus creates a different species composition than the original and has a negative effect on biodiversity (Birds in Forested Landscapes; Krisko).

            The problem of tropical deforestation transverses political, social, economic, and environmental boundaries, meaning that the solution must address all of these factors.  Many developing countries are in debt to developed nations.  Developing countries will cut down their only resource, the forest, and sell it to developed nations to pay off some of the debt.  Unfortunately, once their forests are gone, they no longer have a significant revenue source and sink deeper into debt because of interest rates.  (Rainforest Facts).  I think developed countries have a responsibility to let developing nations pay their debt not by cutting their forests, but by preserving them.  First-world nations should be concerned about the preservation of rainforests to supply clean air for the world and to continue their status as carbon sinks, if for no other reasons. 

            Governmental incentives to develop forested land should be halted.  In many Central and South American countries, governments provide tax breaks to businesses and people who clear the rainforest for logging or agriculture. In Brazil, land ownership is granted to people who merely clear the forest and put a few head of cattle on it. These governments still believe that rainforests are unproductive, wasteful places and that more money could be made by clearing them (Butler).  Though more money is made initially, this money does not compensate for the environmental degradation that occurs.  Governments need to realize the value of rainforests, and not sell them for momentary monetary gain. 

            Less land would need to be cleared for agriculture if agricultural practices were more efficient.  A well known phenomena of agriculture in tropical regions is the rapid depletion of nutrients from the soil as a result of slash and burn agriculture, which leads to clearing more land elsewhere (Butler ²).  Many practices could be implemented to retain and regenerate soil quality, such as composting, carefully planning crop rotations, and choosing the right crop for the microclimate, among others (Diver).  Tropical forest gardening, a method in which crops are planted in a way the mimics forest structure, is another efficient alternative to slash and burn agriculture (Pinton).  

 

 

 

 

 

Bibliography

 

 

 

 

Birds in Forested Landscapes. [Internet]. What is Forest Fragmentation and Why is it Importatn? Cornell Lab of Ornithology. [cited 2008 February 6]. Available from http://www.birds.cornell.edu/bfl/gen_instructions/fragmentation.html

 

 

 

Butler, Rhett A. [Internet]. [updated 2007]. Amazon Destruction: Why is the rainforest being destroyed in Brazil? [cited 2008 February 6]. Available at: http://rainforests.mongabay.com/amazon/amazon_destruction.html

 

 

 

Butler², Rhett A. [Internet]. [updated 2007]. Subsistence Activities. [cited 2008 February 6]. Available at: http://rainforests.mongabay.com/0804.htm

 

Butler³, Rhett A. [Internet] [updated 2008]. Commercial Agriculture. [cited 2008 February 6]. Available at: http://rainforests.mongabay.com/0811.htm

 

 

 

 

Diver, Steve.  [Internet] [updated 2008]. National Sustainable Agriculture Information Service.  Available at http://attra.ncat.org/attra-pub/biodynamic.html.

 

 

 

Harpy Eagle. [Internet]. Blue Planet Biomes. [cited 2008 February 8]. Available from: http://www.blueplanetbiomes.org/harpy_eagle.htm

 

 

 

Holl, K.D. 1999. Factors limiting tropical rain forest regeneration in abandoned pasture:

seed rain, seed germination, microclimate, and soil. Biotropia 31 (2): 229-242

 

 

 

Janzen, Daniel H. 1983. Costa Rican Natural History. Chicago, (IL): The University of Chicago Press.  p. 135, 145, 212-214.

 

 

 

Kapok, Ceiba or Cotton Silk Tree. [Internet]. [updated 2008 February]. St John Guide; [cited 2008 February 4]. Available from: http://www.stjohnbeachguide.com/Kapok.htm.

 

 

 

Krisko, Beth. [Internet]. [updated 202 May].  Biodiversity loss due to tropical forest fragmentation: conservation in a modified landscape.  [cited 2008 February 6]. Available from: http://jrscience.wcp.muohio.edu/FieldCourses00/TropEcoCostaRicaArticles/Biodiversitylossduetotrop.html

 

 

 

Pinton, Florence. [Internet]. The tropical garden as a sustainable food system.  [cited 2008 February 6]. Available at http://www.unu.edu/Unupress/food/8F073e/8F073E05.htm

 

 

 

Rainforest Facts [internet]. [Updated 1996]. Raintree Nutrition, Inc., Carson City, Nevada. [cited 2008 February 2]. Available at http://www.rain-tree.com/facts.htm

 

 

 

Woodward, Catherine L [Internet]. [updated 2007]. Ceiba Foundation for Tropical Conservation; [cited 2008 February 8]. Available from: http://www.ceiba.org/ceiba.htm