Parque de la Ceiba (English: Ceiba Tree Park) is a passive park in sector Cuatro Calles of barrio San Antón,

Ponce, Puerto Rico Ponce (, , , ) is both a city and a municipality on the southern coast of Puerto Rico. The city is the seat of the municipal government. Ponce, Puerto Rico's most populated city outside the San Juan metropolitan area, was founded on 12 August 1 ...

. Its centerpiece is the historic

Ceiba ''Ceiba'' is a genus of trees in the family Malvaceae, native to tropical and subtropical areas of the Americas (from Mexico and the Caribbean to N Argentina) and tropical West Africa. Some species can grow to tall or more, with a straight, la ...

tree, a tree associated with the founding of the city. Now surrounded by the park with the same name, the emblematic 500-year-old Ceiba tree stands on the edge of the

Ponce Historic Zone The Ponce Historic Zone (''La Zona Histórica de Ponce'') is a historic district in downtown Ponce, Puerto Rico, consisting of buildings and structures with architecture that date to the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The zone go ...

.''En intensivo la venerada Ceiba de Ponce.''
Jason Rodríguez Grafal. La Perla del Sur. Ponce Puerto Rico. 19 July 2011. Retrieved 20 July 2011. The park opened in 1984, under the administration of Mayor Jose Dapena Thompson. A sign on the fence that surrounds the tree identifies it as

Ceiba pentandra ''Ceiba pentandra'' is a tropical tree of the order Malvales and the family Malvaceae (previously emplaced in the family Bombacaceae), native to Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean, northern South America, and (as the variety ''C. pentandr ...

Location

The park is located on Comercio street, next to Rio Portugues in the Cuatro Calles sector of barrio San Antón. Today the area is a mixed residential/commercial area on urban route PR-133. The park is managed by the Ponce municipal government.''Ceiba de Ponce.'' TravelPonce
/ref> The tree is about half a mile east of

Plaza Las Delicias Plaza Las Delicias is the main plaza in the city of Ponce, Puerto Rico. The square is notable for its fountains and for the various monuments it contains. The historic Parque de Bombas and Ponce Cathedral buildings are located within the plaza ...

History

The park sits on an area believed to have been the site of the first settlement of Europeans in the Ponce region. "In the surroundings of the legendary Ceiba de Ponce, broken pieces of indigenous pottery, shells, and stones were found to confirm the presence of Taino Indians long before the Spaniards that latter settled in the area." It has been said that this tree was already a large tree at the time of the arrival of

Christopher Columbus Christopher Columbus * lij, Cristoffa C(or)ombo * es, link=no, Cristóbal Colón * pt, Cristóvão Colombo * ca, Cristòfor (or ) * la, Christophorus Columbus. (; born between 25 August and 31 October 1451, died 20 May 1506) was a ...

to the

New World The term ''New World'' is often used to mean the majority of Earth's Western Hemisphere, specifically the Americas."America." ''The Oxford Companion to the English Language'' (). McArthur, Tom, ed., 1992. New York: Oxford University Press, p. ...

. Reference is also made to a book that suggests the tree already existed in 1696, and an 1818 map of Ponce by

Alejandro Ordóñez Alejandro Ordóñez (c. 1766 – c. 1836) was Mayor of Ponce, Puerto Rico, from 3 January 1816 to 31 December 1818. He was a ''teniente justicia mayor'' (justice major lieutenant). Background Ordóñez was a Spanish subject who had arrived to P ...

shows the location of the tree. In 1916, the tree measured 118 feet in circumference, measured at 4 feet from the ground surface. Historic Ceiba Tree, Ponce

The tree

The feature of the park is the historic centuries-old tree. The tree is also known as

kapok tree Kapok tree can refer to several plants Malvales with one exception with seeds that grow long hairs: *''Bombax ceiba'', an Asian tree with red flowers *''Calotropis procera'' (Asterid), a shrub with white and purple flowers, native to Asia and ...

and silk cotton tree. The scientific name of the tree is ''

''. The legendary tree belongs to the genus ''Ceiba'', of the species ''pentandra'', and the family ''Bombacaceae''. The word ''Ceiba'' comes from a Taino word pronounced ''say-bah''. Ceiba is one of the largest and tallest trees in the tropics of the

Western Hemisphere The Western Hemisphere is the half of the planet Earth that lies west of the prime meridian (which crosses Greenwich, London, United Kingdom) and east of the antimeridian. The other half is called the Eastern Hemisphere. Politically, the te ...

. They have been known to reach heights of over 180 feet.Puerto Rico's National Tree. El Boricua.
/ref> The tree is closely related to the peculiar baobab trees of Africa.''Ceiba Tree.'' El Boricua.
/ref> The Ceiba tree is also Puerto Rico's official national tree.

Conservation

The tree has recently been decaying and, on 30 December 2006, it lost a large limb that accounted for some 30% of its foliage at that time. The channeling of Rio Portugues and the development of a nearby recreational area have been mentioned as possible causes for the rapid deterioration of the tree in recent years. In June 2009, the environmentalist group ProOrnato Inc and the government of the municipality of Ponce joined efforts to preserve the old tree in a weekend-long event. On 18 July 2011, however, the tree lost another large limb. After this event, only 35% of the remaining tree was estimated to still be alive.

Characteristics

The fruit of the Ceiba tree contains a fiber that is eight time lighter than cotton and five times more

buoyant Buoyancy (), or upthrust, is an upward force exerted by a fluid that opposes the weight of a partially or fully immersed object. In a column of fluid, pressure increases with depth as a result of the weight of the overlying fluid. Thus the pr ...

than cork. As such it was used as the flotation for early life preservers. In addition to these attributes, the fiber fully repels water, has a low thermal conductivity and is resistant to rot. A little known fact is that before synthetics were used for insulation materials, mattresses and pillows, these were stuffed with the fiber of the Ceiba tree fruit. It was recently discovered that the absorption capacity of this fiber is also higher than that of the polypropylene material normally used in the cleanup of environmental oil spills. "The wood of the Ceiba tree is exceedingly lightweight and easily worked. However, because it lacks durability and is susceptible to insects and decay, it was mostly used for the construction of large canoes by the indigenous inhabitants of the region." Canoes made of Ceiba tree trunks were able to seat over 100 men.

In the arts

La Ceiba de Ponce is depicted in

Francisco Oller Francisco Oller (June 17, 1833 – May 17, 1917) was a Puerto Rican painter. Oller is the only Latin American painter to have played a role in the development of Impressionism. One of the most distinguished transatlantic painters of his da ...

’s first impressionist landscape masterpiece (1888) and on display at the

Museo de Arte de Ponce Museo de Arte de Ponce (MAP) is an art museum located on Avenida Las Américas in Ponce, Puerto Rico.Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, Puerto Rico Tourism Company. Ven al Sur, page 20. San Juan, Puerto Rico, 2003. It houses a collection of European ...

.Puerto Rico: Arte e Identidad. By Hermandad de Artistas Gráficos de Puerto Rico. Page 49.
/ref>

References

External links

{{Portal, Puerto Rico
La Ceiba Tree at Panoramio

Picture of Ceiba Tree from Flickr. Around 8 August 1914.

Picture of Ceiba Tree from Flickr. Dated between 1954 and 1956
Urban public parks Parks in Ponce, Puerto Rico 1984 in Puerto Rico 1984 establishments in Puerto Rico Tourist attractions in Ponce, Puerto Rico