From around mid-February, when the flowers of the Cotton Tree (fig.), a tree known in Thai as ton ngiw, start falling, the local people gather to collect them.

These reddish to orange flowers, referred to in Thai as dok ngiw or dok ngiaw, are used in oriental cooking.

Whereas the petals can be eaten like a vegetable, the filaments of the stamen, without the anther (fig.), are used to season food in oriental cooking (fig.).