Previous Thread
Next Thread
Print Thread
#426233 12/28/11 07:48 AM
Joined: Oct 1999
Posts: 84,397
Marty Offline OP
OP Offline

Cotton Tree, Belize

Ceiba Tree – Belize

The Silk Cotton or Ceiba Tree [Ceiba pentandra] is one of the largest trees in the American tropics. The Ceiba Tree not only played a significant role in the physical world of the Mayas, as a multi-purpose tree, but it also was a pillar in their spiritual world. For this reason, this tree, known as Wacah Chan by the Mayans, was referred to as the Tree of Life.

The ancient Maya believed the earth, or Middle World, to be flat and four-cornered. Each corner was supported by trees and at the center was the Ceiba tree. Each corner tree had a color and meaning. The white tree represented the ancestral dead and the North, the red represented the rising sun and the East, the yellow represented the right hand of the sun and the South, and the black represented the underworld and the West.

Finally, the Ceiba represented the center and the three levels of the Mayan universe (cosmos, middle world, and underworld). The branches were believed to hold the 13 layers of the cosmos, or the heavens (supposedly the tree has 13 layers of branches. I haven't counted them, though.), and the roots were believed to reach the 9 layers of the underworld. The Mayas believed caves were the underworld, and they associated the stalactite formations with the roots of the Ceiba tree, believing they were one and the same.

Aside from its spiritual significance, the Ceiba had an importance in the Maya economy. Its trunk was used to build canoes, which were used for navigation and commercial trade between cities and settlements.

The Ceiba Tree is the national tree of Guatemala, another Central American country with a rich maya heritage.

The tree picture below is one of the twin Ceiba Trees found at Caracol Archaeological Site. They both stand tall and impotent, one next to the other, dwarfing all the trees that surround them.

Cotton Tree, Belize

Cotton Tree, Belize

Globotrek.com


Marty #432417 03/08/12 09:15 AM
Joined: Oct 1999
Posts: 84,397
Marty Offline OP
OP Offline

We spend a lot of time getting excited about the wild animals we see during our Trans-Americas Journey but there have also been some pretty spectacular trees along the way including Sequoias in California and ancient Bristlecone Pines. In Central America, it’s all about the ceiba (pronounced say bah) and we fell in love with this magestic, mighty and possibly magical tree.

Giant Ceiba at Tikal, Guatemala

This stately example of a ceiba tree greets visitors to the Tikal archaeological site in Guatemala.

Ceiba Tree

A mature ceiba tree.

 

A ceiba is usually the tallest tree in the jungle and can grow to more than 200 feet (70 meters) tall. The trunks are branchless and very straight, making them a favored tree for canoe making. A large ceiba trunk can yield a canoe large enough to hold 40 men.

All of a cebia’s branches are at the very top of the tree where they radiate out like the ribs of an umbrella. The whole massive thing is held upright by wide buttresses at it’s base.

The ceiba is the national tree of Guatemala where it’s actually illegal to cut one down. This explains why its so common to see one giant ceiba looming large in the middle of an otherwise cleared field full of crops or cows.

 

The ceiba starts off its life with spikes that look a bit like shark’s teeth covering its trunk. As the tree matures, the spikes disappear.

Young Ceiba tree spikes

A young ceiba tree--it loses these spikes as it matures.

Twin Ceiba trees at Caracol Mayan ruins

These twin ceiba trees are at the Caracol archaeological site in Belize.

Cieba El Mirador National Park

Karen dwarfed by a ceiba tree at the La Florida archaeological site near El Mirador in Guatemala.

 

 

Though the ceiba is the national tree of Guatemala it’s found in Mexico and throughout Central America.

Ceibas are also known as cotton trees, named for the fluffy white stuff that comes out of pods which grow on the tree. The fluff used to be used to fill pillows and mattresses. One species of ceiba is also commonly called a kaypok tree.

Buttress supporting a giant Ceiba

Buttressed above-ground supports like these help keep massive ceiba trees upright, even when they grow to 200' or more.

Ceiba tree at  Hacienda Uayamon, Mexico

This ceiba tree is as old and stately as its home, the historic Hacienda Uayamon hotel in Mexico.

The ancient Mayans believed the ceiba was the Tree of Life connecting heaven, the terrestial realm in which we live and the underworld (Xibalba). If you look at the tree’s shape it’s easy to see why: long straight trunk (terrestrial realm) capped with branches reaching for the heavens and secured to terra firms with an intricate network of roots headed for the underworld.

Rainforest canopy observation platform built high up in a ceiba at Belize Lodge Excursions

A small observation platform suspended 100' up a ceiba tree at Jungle Camp lodge (operated by Belize Lodge & Excursions) provides one of the best bird watching and rainforest observation points in all of Belize.

In 1963 President John F. Kennedy planted a ceiba in front of the Foreign Ministry building in San Jose, Costa Rica. Sadly, it had to be cut down in 2008 after it became unstable and threatened to fall on the building.

Giant ceiba tree in Costa Rica

This giant ceiba at the Shawandha Lodge on Costa Rica's Carribbean coast is over 205 feet (63 meters) tall and is believed to be the second tallest ceiba in all of Costa Rica.

Ceiba tree painted on a school in Belize

A ceiba tree painted on a the side of a school in southern Belize.

Bathroom built around Ceiba tree at Hacienda San Jose, Mexico

A ceiba tree continues to grow in the middle of the bathroom in one of the rooms at Hacienda San Jose hotel in Mexico.

Cotton tree (Ceiba) Chocolate in Punta Gorda, Belize

Cotton Tree Chocolate in Punta Gorda, Belize borrows another common name for the ceiba which produces pods that are full of a cotton-like fluff.

SOURCE



Link Copied to Clipboard
March
S M T W T F S
1 2
3 4 5 6 7 8 9
10 11 12 13 14 15 16
17 18 19 20 21 22 23
24 25 26 27 28 29 30
31
Cayo Espanto
Click for Cayo Espanto, and have your own private island
More Links
Click for exciting and adventurous tours of Belize with Katie Valk!
Who's Online Now
0 members (), 327 guests, and 0 robots.
Key: Admin, Global Mod, Mod
Forum Statistics
Forums44
Topics79,199
Posts500,011
Members20,460
Most Online7,413
Nov 7th, 2021



AmbergrisCaye.com CayeCaulker.org HELP! Visitor Center Goods & Services San Pedro Town
BelizeSearch.com Message Board Lodging Diving Fishing Things to Do History
BelizeNews.com Maps Phonebook Belize Business Directory
BelizeCards.com Picture of the Day

The opinions and views expressed on this board are the subjective opinions of Ambergris Caye Message Board members
and not of the Ambergris Caye Message Board its affiliates, or its employees.

Powered by UBB.threads™ PHP Forum Software 7.7.5