Rare tree blooming spectacularly at Bradenton’s Palma Sola park. You can see it for free
The star of the Palma Sola Botanical Park right now has to be the red silk-cotton tree.
It’s covered in hundreds of huge, brilliantly red, five-petal flowers. Also known as Bombax ceiba, the cotton tree is not from around here, meaning that you might drive a ways to see another.
The cotton tree is native to Southeast Asia and northern Australia. The Bradenton specimen has been around as long as retired attorney Nick Baden has been volunteering with the botanical park, about two decades.
“This is one of the most spectacular blooms it has ever produced,” Baden said this week.
Palma Sola Botanical park is located at 9800 17th Ave. NW. Admission is free.
The idea for a botanical park began in 1990 with citizens and community groups working to save the 10-acre Manatee County Nursery site. The Palma Sola Botanical Park Foundation was created in 1993 to preserve the former nursery as green space and a park.
It is now host to rare palms, fruit trees, flowering trees and other subtropical plants. It receives no federal, state or local subsidies.
One of its principal fundraisers is the spring plants and more sale planned 8 a.m.- 3 p.m. March 14. For more information, visit www.palmasolabp.org or call 941-761-2866.
