''Cochlospermum religiosum'' is a
flowering plant
Flowering plants are plants that bear flowers and fruits, and form the clade Angiospermae (), commonly called angiosperms. The term "angiosperm" is derived from the Greek words ('container, vessel') and ('seed'), and refers to those plants th ...
from the tropical region of
Southeast Asia
Southeast Asia, also spelled South East Asia and South-East Asia, and also known as Southeastern Asia, South-eastern Asia or SEA, is the geographical United Nations geoscheme for Asia#South-eastern Asia, south-eastern region of Asia, consistin ...
and the
Indian Subcontinent
The Indian subcontinent is a list of the physiographic regions of the world, physiographical region in United Nations geoscheme for Asia#Southern Asia, Southern Asia. It is situated on the Indian Plate, projecting southwards into the Indian O ...
. It is a small
tree
In botany, a tree is a perennial plant with an elongated stem, or trunk, usually supporting branches and leaves. In some usages, the definition of a tree may be narrower, including only woody plants with secondary growth, plants that are ...
growing to a height of usually found in dry
deciduous forest
In the fields of horticulture and Botany, the term ''deciduous'' () means "falling off at maturity" and "tending to fall off", in reference to trees and shrubs that seasonally shed leaves, usually in the autumn; to the shedding of petals, aft ...
s.
The name ''religiosum'' derives from the fact that the flowers are used as temple offerings. It is also known as silk-cotton tree because the capsules containing the seeds have a fluffy cotton-like substance similar to
kapok. Another common name is buttercup tree because its yellow and bright flowers look like large-sized
buttercup
''Ranunculus'' is a large genus of about almost 1700 to more than 1800 species of flowering plants in the family Ranunculaceae. Members of the genus are known as buttercups, spearworts and water crowfoots.
The genus is distributed in Europe, ...
s.
Flowers of India - Buttercup tree
/ref>
In Theravada Buddhism
''Theravāda'' () ( si, ථේරවාදය, my, ထေရဝါဒ, th, เถรวาท, km, ថេរវាទ, lo, ເຖຣະວາດ, pi, , ) is the most commonly accepted name of Buddhism's oldest existing school. The school' ...
, this plant is said to have used as the tree for achieved enlightenment, or Bodhi by nineteenth Buddha
Siddhartha Gautama, most commonly referred to as the Buddha, was a śramaṇa, wandering ascetic and religious teacher who lived in South Asia during the 6th or 5th century BCE and founded Buddhism.
According to Buddhist tradition, he was ...
called "Siddhaththa - සිද්ධත්ථ". The plant is known as කිණිහිරියා (Kinihiriyaa) in Sinhala, and කණිකාර (Kanikaara) in Sanskrit..
Gallery
Image:Yellow Silk Cotton (Cochlospermum religiosum) trunk in Kolkata W IMG 4248.jpg, Trunk in Kolkata
Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , the official name until 2001) is the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal, on the eastern bank of the Hooghly River west of the border with Bangladesh. It is the primary business, comme ...
, West Bengal
West Bengal (, Bengali: ''Poshchim Bongo'', , abbr. WB) is a state in the eastern portion of India. It is situated along the Bay of Bengal, along with a population of over 91 million inhabitants within an area of . West Bengal is the fourt ...
, India
India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...
.
Image:Yellow Silk Cotton (Cochlospermum religiosum) flowers in Kolkata W IMG 4246.jpg, Flowers
Image:Yellow Silk Cotton (Cochlospermum religiosum) flowers in Kolkata W IMG 4244.jpg, Detail of the flowers
Image:Yellow Silk Cotton (Cochlospermum religiosum) flowering tree in Kolkata W IMG 4252.jpg, Flowering tree
Image:Yellow Silk Cotton (Cochlospermum religiosum) flowering canopy in Kolkata W IMG 4250.jpg, Flowering canopy
Image:Yellow Silk Cotton (Cochlospermum religiosum) flower in Kolkata W IMG 4254.jpg, Detail of a flower
Image:Fruit and Flower Cochlospermum religiosum.JPG, Fruit and Flower
Image:Flower Cochlospermum religiosum.JPG, Flower
References
External links
religiosum
Flora of the Indian subcontinent
Flora of Myanmar
{{Malvales-stub