Ochroma pyramidale(Cav. ex Lam.) Urb.

BalsaWest Indian balsa

WFO wfo-0000390582 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC0 / CC BY / CC BY-SA

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 8 separate observations

Ochroma pyramidale, photographed by Erick Vélez Sánchez
fig. a Erick Vélez Sánchez, CC BY 4.0 / 2022-01-08 / obs. 184682306
Ochroma pyramidale, photographed by Trevor Van Loon
fig. b Trevor Van Loon, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 179482646
Ochroma pyramidale, photographed by Ashwin Srinivasan
fig. c Ashwin Srinivasan, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 178127567
Ochroma pyramidale, photographed by Vincent A. Vos
fig. d Vincent A. Vos, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 169148445
Ochroma pyramidale, photographed by Ignacio Moreira-Corral
fig. e Ignacio Moreira-Corral, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 170858291
Ochroma pyramidale, photographed by ritirene
fig. f ritirene, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 148169725
Ochroma pyramidale, photographed by Andrew J. Crawford
fig. g Andrew J. Crawford, CC0 1.0 / obs. 110806310
Ochroma pyramidale, photographed by Daniel Cahen
fig. h Daniel Cahen, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 61434295

Every figure is a research-grade observation under CC0, CC BY or CC BY-SA, rehosted with the photographer’s name, the licence and the observation it came from. Photographs under a NonCommercial licence are excluded from this site and are never stored, which costs us a great many pictures and is not negotiable.

Native range 25 botanical countries

Regions where Ochroma pyramidale is native: Mexico Gulf, Mexico Southeast, Mexico Southwest, Belize, Bolivia, Brazil North, Central American Pacific Is., Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, French Guiana, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Jamaica, Leeward Is., Panamá, Peru, Puerto Rico, Trinidad-Tobago, Venezuela, Windward Is. Mexico GulfMexico SoutheastMexico SouthwestBelizeBoliviaBrazil NorthCentral American Pacific Is.ColombiaCosta RicaCubaDominican RepublicEcuadorEl SalvadorFrench GuianaGuatemalaHaitiHondurasJamaicaPanamáPeruPuerto RicoTrinidad-TobagoVenezuela Leeward Is.Windward Is.
Native distribution of Ochroma pyramidale, after Kew’s World Checklist of Vascular Plants. Introduced, extinct and doubtful records are excluded, so this is where the plant is from, not everywhere it now grows. Regions too small to draw at this scale are marked with a dot.
RegionTDWG codeContinent
Belize BLZ SOUTHERN AMERICA
Bolivia BOL
Brazil North BZN
Central American Pacific Is. CPI
Colombia CLM
Costa Rica COS
Cuba CUB
Dominican Republic DOM
Ecuador ECU
El Salvador ELS
French Guiana FRG
Guatemala GUA
Haiti HAI
Honduras HON
Jamaica JAM
Leeward Is. LEE
Panamá PAN
Peru PER
Puerto Rico PUE
Trinidad-Tobago TRT
Venezuela VEN
Windward Is. WIN
Mexico Gulf MXG NORTHERN AMERICA
Mexico Southeast MXT
Mexico Southwest MXS

Region boundaries approximated from Natural Earth (public domain) and mapped to TDWG World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions (WGSRPD) level-3 botanical countries (Brummitt 2001). Indicative, not the official WGSRPD geometry.

Flowering 43 in flower of 80 examined

Peak flowering in Feb. Each bar is the share of Ochroma pyramidale observations in which someone actually recorded the reproductive state and found the plant in flower, not the raw number of flowering records. That distinction matters: people observe plants far more in spring than in winter, so a bare count of flowering records partly measures when people go outside. Dividing by the number examined removes that. 43 of 80 examined observations were in flower, every one of them research grade. The whisker on each bar is a 95% Wilson interval. 5 months have fewer than 5 examined observations, so no proportion is drawn for them. This is still a global aggregate and not a forecast for your garden: the same species flowers on different dates in different hemispheres. Where a species has fewer than 30 flowering records we do not draw this chart at all. Computed from 10.15468/dl.cgje2x.

Also published as 24 synonyms

A synonym is not an error. It is a record of botanists disagreeing, in print, about where this plant belongs. Each of these was somebody’s considered answer.

  • Bombax angulata Sessé & Moc.
  • Bombax angulatum Sessé & Moc.
  • Bombax pyramidale Cav. ex Lam.
  • Bombax pyramidatum Steud.
  • Ochroma bicolor Rowlee
  • Ochroma boliviana Rowlee
  • Ochroma concolor Rowlee
  • Ochroma grandiflora Rowlee
  • Ochroma lagopodum St.-Lag.
  • Ochroma lagopus Sw.
  • Ochroma lagopus var. bicolor (Rowlee) Standl. & Steyerm.
  • Ochroma lagopus var. occigranatense Cuatrec.
  • Ochroma lagopus var. occigranatensis Cuatrec.
  • Ochroma limonense Rowlee
  • Ochroma limonensis Rowlee
  • Ochroma obtusa Rowlee
  • Ochroma obtusum Rowlee
  • Ochroma peruviana I.M.Johnst.
  • Ochroma pyramidale var. bicolor (Rowlee) Brizicky
  • Ochroma pyramidale var. concolor (Rowlee) R.E.Schult.
  • Ochroma tomentosa Willd.
  • Ochroma tomentosum Humb. & Bonpl. ex Willd.
  • Ochroma tomentosum var. ibarrense Benoist
  • Ochroma velutina Rowlee

Sourcesevery claim on this page

  1. World Flora Online Plant List. accepted name, authority, classification. CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-12.
  2. iNaturalist. photographs and flowering annotations, CC0 / CC BY / CC BY-SA only. per photograph. Retrieved 2026-06-27.
  3. Wikidata. common name (P1843), joined on the World Flora Online identifier (P7715). CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-13.
  4. Kew, World Checklist of Vascular Plants (WCVP v16). native distribution by TDWG level-3 botanical country, and life form. CC BY 3.0. Retrieved 2026-06-04.

We publish what we can source and we say so when we cannot. This page has no care advice and no toxicity claim, because we do not yet have those from a source we can cite.