Ceiba Tree Park

Parque de la Ceiba
The Ceiba tree at Parque de la Ceiba in Barrio San Anton in Ponce, PR, as it appeared in November 2010
Type	Passive park
Location	PR-133/Calle Comercio, Cuatro Calles sector, Barrio San Antón, in Ponce, Puerto Rico
Area	approx 0.6 cuerdas
Created	1984
Operated by	Autonomous Municipality of Ponce
Status	Open Daily, 8am to 4:30pm

Parque de la Ceiba (English: Ceiba Tree Park) is a passive park in sector Cuatro Calles of barrio San Antón, Ponce, Puerto Rico. Its centerpiece is the historic Ceiba 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 park opened in 1984, under the administration of Mayor Jose Dapena Thompson.

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. The tree is about half a mile east of Plaza Las Delicias.

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

In 1916, the tree measured 118 feet in circumference, measured at 4 feet from the ground surface.

An image of the tree taken in 1900. Notice the photographer, at right,taking pictures of tourists posing on the tree.

The feature of the park is the historic centuries-old tree. The tree is also known as kapok tree and silk cotton tree. The scientific name of the tree is Ceiba pentandra. 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. They have been known to reach heights of over 180 feet. The tree is closely related to the peculiar baobab trees of Africa. The Ceiba tree is also Puerto Rico’s official national tree.