Floss silk tree

The palo borracho, with its barrel-shaped, spiny trunk and pink flowers, graces the streets of Buenos Aires and grows wild in the Chaco forests.

The floss silk tree is a member of the mallow family, growing to 15–25 m, with a distinctive bottle-shaped, swollen trunk in which it stores water. Its greenish bark is covered in thick, conical spines, and its palmate leaves drop in winter. In late summer and autumn the tree is covered in large pink flowers with creamy centres. The fruits are woody capsules full of seeds wrapped in white, silky floss, once used to stuff pillows and mattresses.

Significance in the country

The name palo borracho (“drunken tree”) refers to its bulging trunk; it is one of the trees most often planted in the parks and avenues of Buenos Aires, Rosario and Córdoba. It flowers in autumn, when most other trees have finished blooming, and its pink crowns then become the pride of Argentine cities.

Where it grows

Wild in the forests of northern Argentina – in Misiones, Corrientes, Formosa, Chaco, Santa Fe and Entre Ríos, and in the Yungas of Salta, Jujuy and Tucumán; planted as an ornamental in Córdoba, Buenos Aires and other cities.

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