If you have ever walked through a tropical rainforest - whether it be in Costa Rica, the Amazon, Southeast Asia or Africa - I’m sure you have come across the Giant. I know what you’re thinking - no, it is not a tropical version of the Bigfoot but the Giant I am referring to is one of the largest and most spectacular trees in the rainforest - the Kapok tree (Ceiba pentandra).

Native to Tropical America, the kapok can reach a height of over 200 feet. Also known as Ceiba among the indigenous people of the Americas, the kapok is considered to be sacred and is often associated with the supernatural. To the Mayans in particular, the kapok was considered to be a very holy tree and has a special place in their mythology. The kapok has many medicinal uses among native people and it is harvested for a variety of purposes – fertilizer, fuel, down filling for mattresses and pillows etc.

One of the highlights of my trip to Peru was encountering a giant kapok tree in the Amazon basin. I took a group photograph of members in my small tour group against this giant to show how enormously wide the buttressed root system is

This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 12th, 2008 at 7:14 am and is filed under Costa Rica, Peru, nature. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.