Research by professor and evolutionary ecologist Christopher Dick and coworkers shows that the kapok tree—and perhaps other rainforest trees—actually colonized Africa after the continents split, as a result of seeds traveling across the ocean. The findings were published online June 7, 2007 in the journal Molecular Ecology.

Coauthors on the paper are Eldredge Bermingham of the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute and Maristerra Lemes and Rogerio Gribel of the Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas da Amazônia. The National Science Foundation, the International Plant Genetics Resource Institute and the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute provided funding.

Illustration by Zina Deretsky, Science Illustrator, National Science Foundation.