This is a lovely white silky material with a number of applications. It can be used as a kapok substitute for stuffing soft toys etc, and being very water repellant, it has been used in life preservers where its buoyancy can keep a person afloat for days. Although difficult to spin on its own, it can be mixed with other fibres to make cloth and it has also been used for making candle wicks. The plants also contains a latex which can be extracted and made into a good quality rubber. This latex is largely found in the leaves, is produced mainly in hot weather when grown on drier soils and is destroyed by frost.
Concentrations vary and are considered to be too low for commercial exploitation.
The latex has also been used as a chewing gum and regular applications are said to be a cure for warts. This oil can be used in making soap etc, though, since the seed is quite light, vast quantities of plants would need to be grown in order to obtain reasonable quantities of oil. The plants also have medicinal applications, for more details on these you should consult a good herbal such as 'A modern Herbal' by Mrs M Grieve. Plants are very easily raised from seed, sown in a cold greenhouse from February to April. Seedlings should be potted up when quite young since they resent much root disturbance.