the plant family Bombacaceae, typified by tropical deciduous trees having palmate leaves, large and often showy solitary or clustered flowers, and dry fruit with a woolly pulp, and including the baobab and silk-cotton tree.
Origin
< Neo-Latin (Linnaeus): the silk-cotton tree genus; Medieval Latin: silk, cotton, alteration of Latinbombȳx silkworm, silk < Greekbómbȳx silkworm; see bombycid