Siam Villa Garden: Yellow Silk Cotton

English Name: Yellow Silk Cotton, Butter Cup, Torchwood

Scientific Name: Cochlospermum Religiosum (L.) Alston

Family: Bixaceae

Native Region: Bangladesh, India, Myanmar, West Himalaya

Deciduous trees, to 10 m tall, bark 20-25 mm thick, surface dark grey, fibrous; branchlets thick. Leaves simple, palmately 3-5 lobed, alternate, estipulate; petiole 6-20 cm long, stout, swollen at base, pubescent; lamina 5-15 x 7-20 cm, base cordate, lobes, elliptic or elliptic-lanceolate, tips acute or acuminate, margin entire or crenate, serrate, glabrous above, densely white tomentose below, coriaceous; 5-7 nerved from the base, palmate, lateral nerves 7-10 in each lobe, parallel, prominent, intercostae scalariform, faint. Flowers bisexual, 7.5-10 cm across, bright yellow, in grey tomentose terminal panicles; sepals 5, 2.5 x 1.5 cm, unequal, obovate, densely tomentose, deciduous; petals 5, 5 x 3 cm, obovate, deeply emarginate, contorted; stamens many, inserted on an eglandular disc, shortly connate at base into 8-10 clusters; filaments 1.5-2.5 cm long; anthers linear, opening by apical slit; ovary superior, globose, glabrate, 3-5-celled, ovules many; style 1, to 1 cm, filiform; stigma somewhat lobed. Fruit a capsule, 6-8 x 4.5-5.5 cm, 5-valved, obovoid, pear shaped, straight, leathery, brown; seeds many, 6 mm long, black, curved, embedded in white cotton.

Buttercup Tree is native to India, Burma and Thailand. It is a small tree growing upto 7.5 m. The bark is smooth and pale grey. It is sparsely clothed with leaves and sheds them at the height of the flowering season. The leaves appear at the tips of the branches and are palmately lobed. The flowers of the Buttercup tree are the most conspicuous part of the tree. They are large, growing upto about 10 cm, buttercup shaped and bright yellow. The stamens are orange. The flowering season is between February and April, particularly after the leaves are shed. The fruits are brown and oval shaped. They come in the form of a capsule made up of five segments. The capsule splits open to release the seeds which are embedded in the silky cotton contained within. This silky cotton is said to induce sleep when stuffed into pillows. The botanical name has the following meaning - Cochlospermum because the seed resembles a snail. Religiosum because the flowers are used as temple offerings.