Bombacaceae

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Bombacaceae

Bombax flower

Scientific classification

Kingdom:	Plantae
Division:	Magnoliophyta
Class:	Magnoliopsida
Order:	Malvales
Family:	Bombacaceae

Genera

See text.

The name Bombacaceae is a botanical name at the rank of family and, as is true for any botanical name, circumscription and status of the taxon varies with taxonomic point of view. The family name is based on the genus Bombax.

Recent phylogenetic research has shown that Bombacaceae as traditionally circumscribed is not a monophyletic group. Bombacaceae is not recognized by the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group at the rank of family, the bulk of the taxa in question being treated as subfamily Bombacoideae within family Malvaceae sensu lato (see also Sterculiaceae and Tiliaceae). A close relationship between Bombacaceae and Malvaceae has long been recognized but until recently the families have been kept separate in most classification systems, and continue to be separated in many references.

As circumscribed in its traditional sense, the family Bombacaceae includes around 30 genera with about 250 species of tropical trees, some of considerable girth, so called "bottle trees". Many species grow to become large trees, with Ceiba pentandra the tallest, reaching a height to 70 m. Several of the genera are commercially important, producing timber, edible fruit or useful fibres. The family is noted for some of the softest hardwoods commercially traded, especially Balsa, Ochroma lagopus. The fruit of the Durian, Durio zibethinus is famous, tasting better than it smells. At one time the fibre from the Kapok tree, Ceiba pentandra was used in making lifebuoys. The Baobabs or "Bottle trees" (Adansonia spp.) are important icons in certain parts of Africa, Australia and Madagascar, noted for their immensely stout trunk development, a mechanism for enhancing water storage.