Need Help Identifying This Hawaiian Tropical

I grew two of these from seed collected on Oahu. Can anyone help identify them?

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Hi

Here in Brazil we call this tree "paineira", the scientific name is Ceiba (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ceiba), but I can't say what sub specie it is. I hope it helps.

This is a adult tree


The flower


I am working on a bonsai of this specie, it is very vigorous, grows really fast even in a pot, in a bonsai pot you may need to prune the roots once a year at list, you can cut lots of the roots because it grows really fast. Root prune may be done in the end of the winter.

This is my paineira.
Photo 1
Photo 2

This species likes hot weather, do not use peat in bonsai soil, this specie doesn't like it, as more organic is the soil more thorn it will produce.

Hi Timahlen,

Yes it does appear to be Bombax Ceiba, which is known in Jamaica as the 'Cotton tree'. Here is some info on the species http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bombax_ceiba

I will try to post some pics of some of our local specimen.

Andre,

Could you share some information on the history and development of your ceiba in training?

Regards,
Nigel

Nigel

Cotton tree is a comom name here in Brazil too, because of the cotton on seeds that take it trough the wind.

This particular tree I have about a year, a friend of mine gave it to me, this is a photo of it when it arrived to me.

http://bonsai.andretoledo.com.br/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/paineira01.jpg

I have another tree that I am growing from seed, but that one will be a normal tree.

That tree gave fruit on autumn and sleeps on winter, in the last month of winter is the best time to do radical intervention, you can stump it drastically and it will develop new shoots from the trunk.

I have no much expirience yet, I'm following the instructions of a friend that works on ceibas as bonsai about 20 years, his name is João Chaddad and he participates on this forum. Any question you may have we'll be happy to help.

Thanks for the help guys! That is indeed what I've got. While we were visiting Foster Botanical Garden in Oahu, there were just hundreds of cotton puffs floating around, each containing a seed. So, I picked a few up off of the parking lot and brought them home without identifying the tree they came from. Two of the seeds sprouted and now each one stands about 25 cm tall, and 1 cm in diameter. Not bad for its first three months! Of course, I have kept it in the heated greenhouse all winter, and discovered it to be a favorite of scale insects.

Thank you for the growing tips. I will post periodic updates as my "ceiba sticks" begin to look like trees.

This is the mother tree


this is the leaf of my ceiba


this is my ceiba about 8 to 10 months of growing

Andre,

The photo of your "pre-bonsai" show some natural taper that is very encouraging as far as bonsai potential is concerned. The very straight trunk and rapid growth suggests that formal upright may be a preferred style for this tree. I think the big issue will be leaf reduction and managing the growth to keep internodes short.

I have read that this species can be an "emergent" tree in the rainforest that rises majestically above the canopy. Have you (or anyone else out there) ever tried to do a rain forest planting that evokes that kind of imagery?

Tim

Trees of this family have a lot of comum names here, another one é big belly tree, because of this taper, took at this photos...





I have already seen Wu (http://www.bonsaiwu.com.ar/) grafting the top of a ceiba in a bottom of the same tree, throwing out the section of the trunk between the two parts, I found the page where I saw it but the link to images are broken so I can't show it, but it is possible to be done.

Up right is not the only style do with this specie, I'm doing one bended, here is a photo of it.
http://bonsai.andretoledo.com.br/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/paineira03.jpg

Here is some ceibas from my friend João Chaddad

Very cool! Thanks for expanding my vision for this kind of tree!