February 23, 201214 yr Now we have a picture, They are not edible they are called, hang nok young. they have a red flower. PS will not hurt you if eaten just act like a laxative. Thongkorn is correct. I asked my Thai wife and she said it's hang nok yang and is used for medicine. A laxative it is related to senna.
February 23, 201214 yr Probably not a Kapok tree as the seed pods are short, fat and filled with that fluffy material they use to fill mattresses. The stamen of the flowers are also used in the soup of a favorite noodle dish (naam neo). Does your tree by chance have white edible flowers? Don't recall the name but they have long string bean like seedpods. Local Kapok tree. Not KAPOK, KOPAK. However, you can be forgiven for not knowing it, even google tried to divert me to Kapok. There is no such thing as a KOPAK tree. That is simply a misspelling of the correct term, KAPOK. A simple picture could put this topic to rest but that seems to be too difficult for you. You have been active on other threads so please don't give us the I have been sick excuse again.
February 25, 201214 yr Author These are a couple of pictures of seed pods of the Kopak and Kapok tree that I found on the internet. The Kopak pods are long and thin, like on the trees I'm asking about, while you describe Kapok pods as being short and fat, like in the picture. There are 270,000 entries for Kopak trees in google. Rather a lot for a tree that doesn't exist.
February 25, 201214 yr Just because Thailand Land of Smiles calls them Kopak doesn't make it so. Your choice is limited to one of these, neither of which is called KOPAK.
February 27, 201214 yr Author OK, So here are a few pics of the actual trees near my house, and a couple of close ups of the pods. Can't show the leaves, as the branches are bare, but you can see some dead brown ones still attached. Whether or not Kopak trees exist or are name confused, the only pictures on the internet that I can find with similar pods are reported to be Kopak trees.
February 27, 201214 yr The two trees, “Ceiba petandra” and “Bombax ceiba” are very close to each other. Some botanists suggest even that they belong to one single genus, namely Bombax. In Thai language the first tree is called ต้นงี้ว, the second one is called ต้นนุ่น. Although the two trees are very similar to each other, they can be distinguished amongst others by the form of their pods: in Bombax ceiba the ratio width : length is between 1:4 to 1:3, in Ceiba (or Bombax) petandra this ratio is about 1:5. To judge from the pictures the tree must be Bombax ceiba. In Malay language the silk-like fibers in the pod are called kapuk, from which the words kapok and – found somethat scarcer I believe- kopak are derived. Kapok and kopak are synonyms. Thus a kapok tree and a kopak tree would be the same. The true kapok/kopak tree is only Ceiba pentandra, but mistakenly Bombax ceiba is also sometimes called Kopak/kapok tree. Bombax ceiba is indigenous to South East Asia, while Ceiba pentandra was introduced from South America. Erwin (please forgive me that my English is not perfect, but English is not my mother tongue)
February 28, 201214 yr Author The two trees, “Ceiba petandra” and “Bombax ceiba” are very close to each other. Some botanists suggest even that they belong to one single genus, namely Bombax. In Thai language the first tree is called ต้นงี้ว, the second one is called ต้นนุ่น. Although the two trees are very similar to each other, they can be distinguished amongst others by the form of their pods: in Bombax ceiba the ratio width : length is between 1:4 to 1:3, in Ceiba (or Bombax) petandra this ratio is about 1:5. To judge from the pictures the tree must be Bombax ceiba. In Malay language the silk-like fibers in the pod are called kapuk, from which the words kapok and – found somethat scarcer I believe- kopak are derived. Kapok and kopak are synonyms. Thus a kapok tree and a kopak tree would be the same. The true kapok/kopak tree is only Ceiba pentandra, but mistakenly Bombax ceiba is also sometimes called Kopak/kapok tree. Bombax ceiba is indigenous to South East Asia, while Ceiba pentandra was introduced from South America. Erwin (please forgive me that my English is not perfect, but English is not my mother tongue) Thank you. I can understand you. My wife agrees that it is a ต้นนุ่น. tree. She didn't know the English name, which was the reason for this thread
March 9, 201214 yr Jacaranda? samsiam has it right, flame tree, the Hang Nok Yoong is the Flame tree or Royal Poinciana latin name Delonix Regia. Its very commonly grown along road sides and looks beautiful when in full flower. I've never had any luck starting it from seed tho, some little worm always eats my seedlings Yes but when not looking beautiful (which is most of their season) they are messy, either dropping the flower petals (as shown in the above picture) leaves or the seeds or entirely naked with a few of the dried brown seed pods hanging on until next spring..
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