Spermatophyta: Dicotyledonae: Archichlamydeae: Malvales

Bombacaceae - Baobab family

Bailey, L.H. & Bailey, E.Z. (1976) Hortus Third. A concise Dictionary of Plants Cultivated in the United States and Canada Macmillan Publishing Co, Inc., New York

Wild, H. (1961) Bombacaceae Flora Zambesiaca 1(2)

Description of the family

The following description refers to Adansonia only. Tree, with an extraordinary swollen trunk. Stipules present, deciduous. Leaves alternate, simple (in young trees) or digitate (in older trees). Flowers large and showy, pendulous, solitary in leaf axils, bisexual, actinomorphic. Pedicels with 2 bracteoles. Calyx deeply 5-lobed (in ours), often with an epicalyx. Petals 5, free. Stamens numerous, united into a tube below (in ours); anthers 1-thecous. Ovary superior, 5-10-locular (in ours). Fruit woody, indehiscent (in ours).

Comment: According to the most recent taxonomic research by the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group (APG-III), this family is now included in Malvaceae. As this new concept still appears to be highly controversial we will remain to treat it as a separate family until further information is available.

Worldwide: 26 genera and 250 species, tropical, especially America.

Mozambique: 3 genera and 4 taxa.

Links to genera: View: living plant images - herbarium specimen images - all images for this family

Genus	Content
Adansonia L.	Description, Image
Bombax L.	Description, Image
Ceiba Mill.	Description

Other sources of information about Bombacaceae:

Our websites:

Flora of Botswana: Bombacaceae
Flora of Caprivi: Bombacaceae
Flora of Malawi: Bombacaceae
Flora of Malawi: cultivated Bombacaceae
Flora of Mozambique: cultivated Bombacaceae
Flora of Zambia: Bombacaceae
Flora of Zambia: cultivated Bombacaceae
Flora of Zimbabwe: Bombacaceae
Flora of Zimbabwe: cultivated Bombacaceae

External websites:

Google: Web - Images - ScholarGRIN (Germplasm Resources Information Network) taxonomy for plants report for Bombacaceae