Bombax ceiba aka Northern Cottonwood

Bombax ceiba, also known as cotton tree, is a large, spiny, deciduous tree native to monsoon forested areas in China and Indomalaysia. Its straight tall trunk, which can reach up to 150 feet in optimum growing environments, has cone-shaped spines that become less prominent as the tree matures. The tree bears palmate green leaves with 5-7 smooth, leathery leaflets and showy red to orange-red flowers with 5 petals that bloom in late winter to early spring. The flowers are followed by seed pods that split open to release silky cotton imbedded with small brown seeds. Its wood is too soft to be useful despite its stout trunk. The tree is also known as Malabar silk-cotton tree, red silk-cotton, red cotton tree, or ambiguously as silk-cotton or kapok, both of which may also refer to Ceiba pentandra. The genus name comes from the Greek word bombyx meaning silk in reference to the silky hairs in the seed capsule, while the specific epithet comes from a Spanish derivative name in reference to a group of large, tropical trees related to Bombax. The Red Silk Cottontree, a large flowering tree in the marshmallow family native to tropical regions of Asia and northern Australia, also has large showy red flowers and smooth white bark.