中文名（Chinese Name）：木棉
学名（Scientific Name）：Bombax ceiba L.
英文名（English Common Name）：red silk cottontree
别名（Chinese Common Name）：红棉、攀枝花、英雄树
异名（Synonym）：Bombax malabaricum DC.；Gossampinus malabarica (DC.) Merr.；Salmalia malabarica (DC.) Schott et Endl.；Bombax malabarica DC., 1824；Bombax ceiba var. leiocarpum Robyns；Bombax thorelii Gagnep.；Bombax tussacii Urb.；Gossampinus rubra Buch.-Ham.；Gossampinus thorelii Bakh.；Melaleuca grandiflora Blanco 
科属（Family & Genus）：木棉科（Bombacaceae）木棉属
形态特征（Description）：落叶大乔木，高可达25米，树皮灰白色，幼树的树干通常有圆锥状的粗刺；分枝平展。掌状复叶，小叶5-7片，长圆形至长圆状披针形，长10-16厘米，宽3.5-5.5厘米，顶端渐尖，基部阔或渐狭，全缘，两面均无毛，羽状侧脉15-17对，上举，其间有1条较细的2级侧脉，网脉极细密，二面微凸起；叶柄长10-20厘米；小叶柄长1.5-4厘米；托叶小。花单生枝顶叶腋，通常红色，有时橙红色，直径约10厘米；萼杯状，长2-3厘米，外面无毛，内面密被淡黄色短绢毛，萼齿3-5，半圆形，高1.5厘米，宽2.3厘米，花瓣肉质，倒卵状长圆形，长8-10厘米，宽3-4厘米，二面被星状柔毛，但内面较疏；雄蕊管短，花丝较粗，基部粗，向上渐细，内轮部分花丝上部分2叉，中间10枚雄蕊较短，不分叉，外轮雄蕊多数，集成5束，每束花丝10枚以上，较长；花柱长于雄蕊。蒴果长圆形，钝，长10-15厘米，粗4.5-5厘米，密被灰白色长柔毛和星状柔毛；种子多数，倒卵形，光滑。花期3-4月，果夏季成熟。
分布（Distribution）：产云南、四川、贵州、广西、江西、广东、福建及台湾等省区，生于海拔1400米以下的干热河谷及稀树草原。
用途（Use）：花可供蔬食，入药清热除湿，花大而美，树姿巍峨，可植为园庭观赏树，行道树。
引自中国植物志英文版FOC Vol. 12 Page 300, 301      
Bombax ceiba Linnaeus, Sp. Pl. 1: 511. 1753.
木棉 mu mian | Bombacaceae  | Bombax
Bombax malabaricum Candolle; Gossampinus malabarica (Candolle) Merrill; Salmalia malabarica (Candolle) Schott & Endlicher.
Trees to 25 m tall; trunk buttressed, usually very spiny on young trees; bark gray-white; branches spreading. Stipules minute; petiole 10-20 cm; leaflets 5-7, petiolules 1.5-4 cm; blades oblong to oblong-lanceolate, 10-16 × 3.5-5.5 cm, glabrous, lateral veins 15-17 on each side of midrib, ascending, base broad or tapering, apex acuminate. Flowers solitary, terminal, ca. 10 cm in diam. Calyx cup-shaped, 2-3(-4.5) cm, abaxially glabrous, adaxially densely yellowish sericeous, calyx lobes 3-5, semi-orbicular, ca. 1.5 × 2.3 cm. Petals usually red, sometimes orange-red, obovate-oblong, 8-10 × 3-4 cm, fleshy, both surfaces stellate puberulent, but sparser adaxially. Filament tube short, filaments thicker at base than apex, outer series in 5 fascicles, each with more than 10 stamens, inner series bifid, central filaments with 10 stamens shorter, entire. Capsule ellipsoid, 10-15 × 4.5-5 cm, densely gray-white villous and stellate puberulent. Seeds many, obovate, smooth. Fl. Mar-Apr, fr. summer.
Hot dry river valleys, savanna; below 1400 m. Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi, Guizhou, Hainan, Jiangxi, Sichuan, Taiwan, Yunnan [Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Nepal, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Sri Lanka; introduced elsewhere].
Bombax ceiba was formerly cultivated for its seed floss (kapok), which is of lower quality than that from Ceiba pentandra. Bombax ceiba var. leiocarpum A. Robyns, distinguished by the glabrous ovary and fruit, is found in N Australia.
（责任编辑：徐晔春）