bombaceous

English

Etymology

From translingual Bombacoideae +‎ -ous.

Adjective

bombaceous (comparative more bombaceous, superlative most bombaceous)

1. (botany, relational) Of the family Bombacoideae (a sub-family of Malvaceae)
   • 1896, Sir William Jackson Hooker, Companion to the Botanical Magazine:

     Where several cylinders have been joined together, and squeezed into a cake or ball, the mass is usually wrapped in large leaves, which appear to belong to a malvaceous or bombaceous plant.

   • 1925, Eugenius Warming, Isaac Bayley Balfour, Martin Vahl, Oecology of plants, page 294:

     Among the remarkable trees present the best known is the bombaceous Chorisia crispiflora, which has a barrel-like swollen trunk whose loose soft wood acts as a gigantic water-reservoir.

   • 2011, Andrew Millington, Mark Blumler, Udo Schickhoff, The SAGE Handbook of Biogeography, page 78:

     Alexander von Humboldt (1769–1859) in 1805 had already differentiated growth forms such as palms, banana form, malvaceous form, bombaceous form, mimosa form, heather, cactus form, orchids, casuarinas, conifer, arum form, lianas, aloe form, grass form, ferns, lilies, willow form, myrtle form, Melastoma form, and laurel form (see Lomolino et al., 2004).

   • 2014, Richard Spruce, Alfred Russel Wallace, Notes of a Botanist on the Amazon and Andes, page 300:

     A bombaceous tree here and there adorned the forest with its numerous purple flowers.