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Sierra Leone Sierra Leone notable tree

Cotton Tree

Christian Trede · CC BY-SA 2.0 de

9% trees around it and 15 species recorded.

  • trees within 3 km9%
  • wild within 10 km81%
  • species recorded15

The forest around

9% trees.

Read like the rings of a cut trunk: from the centre out, the land within 1, 3, 6 and 10 km, coloured by what covers it.

Trees 3%Water 26%Bare ground 1%Built-up 70%Trees 9%Grassland 1%Water 42%Bare ground 0%Built-up 46%Trees 12%Mangroves 0%Shrubland 0%Grassland 5%Wetland 0%Water 52%Bare ground 0%Built-up 30%Trees 17%Mangroves 2%Shrubland 0%Grassland 4%Wetland 0%Water 66%Bare ground 0%Built-up 10%9%trees · 3 km

Trees, ring by ring

  • 0–1 km3%
  • 1–3 km9%
  • 3–6 km12%
  • 6–10 km17%

What covers the land (1–3 km)

  • Trees9%
  • Mangroves0%
  • Shrubland0%
  • Grassland1%
  • Wetland0%
  • Water42%
  • Bare ground0%
  • Built-up46%

ESA WorldCover 2021 (10 m, from Sentinel satellites), sampled every 120 m. A clearing, a road or a lake counts as what it is.

Who lives here

15 species recorded.

The plants, fungi, birds and mammals people have recorded here most often.

Longstamen rice
Longstamen riceOryza longistaminata2 recordsDesmanthus4food · CC BY-SA 3.0 us
Littlebell
LittlebellIpomoea triloba2 recordsstekkelpak · CC0
Vigna gracilisVigna gracilis3 records
Andropogon tectorumAndropogon tectorum2 records
Chasmopodium caudatumChasmopodium caudatum2 records

Open records within 2 km (GBIF, licensed for any use). Busy places are better recorded than remote ones.

In numbers

The forest, measured.

28out of 100

Our own rating, from open data only: tree cover (40 points), wildness (20), species recorded (30) and protection or heritage (10).

  • 9%Treesof the land within 3 km
  • 81%Wildno towns or farmland within 10 km
  • 15Speciesrecorded more than once within 2 km

When to walk

Best for walking from December to February.

How good each month is for a walk: mild days and little rain make the bar taller.

  1. Jan29°22°1 mm
  2. Feb30°23°2 mm
  3. Mar31°24°2 mm
  4. Apr31°25°25 mm
  5. May30°25°136 mm
  6. Jun28°24°399 mm
  7. Jul27°24°644 mm
  8. Aug27°24°699 mm
  9. Sep27°24°400 mm
  10. Oct28°24°187 mm
  11. Nov29°24°71 mm
  12. Dec29°23°4 mm
  • Bar: walking comfort; the number on top is the average maximum.
  • Below: average minimum (NASA, 1991–2020).
  • Rain: monthly total.

The place

Cotton Tree.

Historically important kapok tree and landmark in Freetown, Sierra Leone

Cotton Tree is a notable tree in Sierra Leone.

Seen from space, 9% of the land within 3 km is trees, and 81% of the land within 10 km has no towns or farmland.

15 species have been recorded around it: 5 plants, 0 fungi, 10 birds and 0 mammals.

The most recorded plants are: Longstamen rice, Littlebell and Vigna gracilis.

The best time to walk is from December to February.

Cotton Tree (Sierra Leone)
Christian Trede · CC BY-SA 2.0 de

Get there and walk

  • Tacugama Chimpanzee Sanctuarycampsite · 8.1 km · 3 within 10 km
  • Freetown Innplace to stay · 0.4 km · 93 within 10 km
  • Freetownnearest town · 0.0 km in a straight line
  • Lungi International Airport (FNA)nearest airport with scheduled flights · 15 km in a straight line

Plan the visit

A guided walk, a bed nearby, a car.

Some links above are affiliate links: if you book through them we may earn a commission, at no extra cost to you. It never changes what the data on this page says.

From above

The forest and its surroundings.

The satellite image of the 6 × 6 km around the place, with the trails, notable trees, picnic sites and huts that OpenStreetMap shows.

Cotton Tree seen from above (Sentinel-2)
Seen from above: Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 (EOX, CC BY 4.0), 6 × 6 km, north up. Points © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Around, in OpenStreetMap

  • 1named and notable trees within 6 kmThe Cotton Tree
  • 1shelters and huts within 6 km
  • 6viewpoints within 5 kmSea Side View POW, 75A Leicester Road, marcul and 3 more
  • 1visitor centres within 6 kmNational Tourist Board
  • 13car parks within 3 km
  • 3campsites within 10 kmTacugama Chimpanzee Sanctuary, Scout Camp, Grafton Scout Camp Site
  • 93places to stay within 10 kmFreetown Inn, Sierra International Hotel, Hedjazi Hotel and 90 more
  • 43restaurants and cafés within 3 km
  • marked trails within 5 km
  • picnic sites within 4 km

Counted in OpenStreetMap, the map anyone can edit. A low number may just mean nobody has mapped it yet.

In our other atlases

Around Cotton Tree.

The mountains, lakes, rivers, waterfalls and canyons around this forest, the viewpoints above it, the birds and the night sky, in the family's atlases.

Peakyas19 mountains within 25 km
Leicester Peak105 m · 4.3 kmSugar Loaf7.8 kmSpike Hill10 kmMoku Hill11 kmHamilton12 kmMillars Point15 kmMount Horton20 kmJagba Hill25 km
Lakeyas1 lakes within 15 km
Guma Reservoir0.8 km² · 14 km

Figures from the sister sites' databases (Wikidata, HydroATLAS, GeoNames, OpenStreetMap). Links open when each site is online.

Photographs

The forest, as people saw it.

Cotton Tree with stump and Sierra Leonean flag
Smoking Tyre · CC BY-SA 4.0
Roundtable Sierra Leone
CDC Global · CC BY 2.0
Roundtable 2 Sierra Leone
CDC Global · CC BY 2.0

Other forests nearby.

Cotton Tree

Sierra Leone

  • 28Forestyas Score
  • 9%Trees
  • 81%Wild
  • 15Species

Conakry Botanical Garden

Guinea · 126 km

  • 38Forestyas Score
  • 2%Trees
  • 89%Wild
  • 91Species

See the guide

Gola National Forest

Liberia · 323 km

  • 87Forestyas Score
  • 93%Trees
  • 100%Wild
  • 262Species

See the guide

Kouratier

Guinea · 267 km

  • 58Forestyas Score
  • 47%Trees
  • 94%Wild
  • 75Species

See the guide

Where these figures come from

Name and typeWikidata (Q602200) · CC0
Land coverESA WorldCover 10 m 2021 v200 · © ESA WorldCover project / Copernicus Sentinel data · CC BY 4.0
Species115 open records within 2 km (GBIF, CC0 and CC BY 4.0 only)
See these recordsgbif.org
Names and photosWikidata (CC0); GBIF Backbone Taxonomy · CC BY 4.0; Wikimedia Commons
AltitudeCopernicus DEM GLO-30 · © DLR e.V., © Airbus Defence and Space GmbH, Copernicus/ESA
Temperature and rainNASA POWER (CERES SYN1deg, 2001–2020; MERRA-2)
What is around© OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL
ImagesEOX Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 · CC BY 4.0; Wikimedia Commons
Sister atlasesPeakyas, Coastya, Lakeyas, Birdyas, Cascadyas

Every figure is an average, an estimate or a count from a public dataset. Licences and methods: data sources.

The family

Do you prefer beaches, lakes, mountains, waterfalls, islands, rivers, canyons, caves, dark skies, viewpoints, birdwatching or forests?

Same idea, other landscapes: field atlases built on open data, in seven languages.