Bombacaceae

Trees, often with very thick trunks, all parts covered by stellate hairs or squamae. Leaves alternate, simple, or digitately compound. Stipules deciduous. Flowers mostly solitary, often very large. Flowers hermaphrodite, 5-merous. Calyx valvate. Epicalyx present or wanting. Petals contorted. Stamens many, or rarely 5 or 10; filaments often somewhat connate at the base or free; anthers mono-, di- or polythecal, sometimes spirally twisted. Ovary 2—5-locular. Ovules 2—many in each locule. Capsule loculicidal, often woolly on the inner side or the inner layer of the fruitwall becoming pulpy. Seeds with few or without endosperm; sometimes a fleshy aril present. Embryo large; cotyledons folded. Nearly 30 genera with 150 species in the tropics, mainly in America.