Calle de la Ceiba

The ceiba lends its name to this street in the Las Acacias neighborhood, where several streets were named after trees in the orbit of the nearby Paseo de las Acacias. No record survives of why this American tree in particular was chosen. The ceiba (Ceiba pentandra) grows in the American tropics, from Mexico to Brazil and the Antilles, and ranks among the tallest trees of the continent: specimens of forty meters are common and some pass seventy. The Maya revered it as yax che', the green tree linking the underworld, the earth and the sky, and today it is the national tree of Guatemala. No ceiba takes root in this street of southern Madrid: the giant tree appears here only in the name on the sign.