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Our Cotton Tree

The uniquely shaped young cotton tree standing alone in the Koidu landscape was an easily recognizable reference point in the early planning stages of the project and became affectionately known as 'Our Cotton Tree'.

Our Cotton Tree has a special significance, having been adopted as the Company emblem in 2003. Being protected as a local landmark, Our Cotton Tree has flourished over the years, reflecting the extraordinary growth of the Company.

Botanical name: Ceiba pentandra
Common names: kapok, ceiba tree, white silk-cotton tree, God tree

The Cotton Tree is a massive tropical tree with deep ridges on its massive trunk and bearing large pods of seeds covered with silky floss; source of the silky kapok fiber. It is the tallest tree in Africa, with tiered branches and palmate compound leaves. The fruits are oblong, smooth and light green in color. While still on the tree, the fruits burst open after the leaves have fallen, exposing cotton-like fibers commonly called kapok.

Once a year all the leaves of the Kapok fall off the tree and about every five to ten years large, white to pinkish, bell-shaped flowers are produced after the tree is leafless. The flowers open up in the early evening about fifteen minutes after sunset.

Although human beings usually find the flower to have a foul odor, bats are attracted to the fragrance and arrive during the night to suck the nectar and in the morning bees finish off any of the nectar not already consumed by the bats. The flower then develops into a fruit or seedpod about six inches long. The pod is filled with brown seeds and cotton-like, woolly floss.
In Africa, the Cotton Tree is considered sacred. It is said that sleeping on pillows made of kapok cotton will bring good luck, purify and empower your material and spiritual energy and bring good dreams and saintly vibrations. In traditional medicine, the seeds, leaves, bark and resin, from the kapok tree are used for: dysentery, fevers, venereal diseases,
asthma, menstruation and kidney diseases.