Cochlospermum vitifolium (Buttercup Tree)

Native from Mexico through Central America into tropical South America, and to Cuba, this plant is a deciduous tree of seasonally dry forests. Its open crown has relatively few stout branches and gray bark that may have a reddish tinge. Large, alternate leaves usually have five pointed lobes and toothed margins. The tree sheds its leaves during the dry season, when clusters of large yellow flowers develop at branch tips. Each flower has five broad, often notched petals surrounding numerous stamens with reddish filaments and yellow anthers. Rounded, hanging seed capsules split into five sections, exposing small, curved seeds wrapped in white, cottonlike hairs that assist wind dispersal. New leafy shoots develop below the flowering branch tips when rains return. Bark fibers have been used to make twine. Photographed in western Panama.