Silk Floss Tree
Derby St, Berkeley
These have amazing flowers 💐 and giant trunks and amazing thick spines. Nice! And they grow them in Berkeley right along the streets.
They are in the former Bombax family, with other succulent bottle trees, which is now the Bombax subfamily (Bombacoideae) of the mallow family, Malvaceae. Wow! That means it’s a giant tree that is closely related to these delicate and gorgeous California Native perennials. Sweet.