Inside the follicles are seeds, as well as orange urticating hairs that may cause pain when touched.

[9] Antioxidant compounds can be obtained from the seeds via continuous or batch extractions using water or ethanol as solvents.

[4] Sterculia apetala is found in the tropical regions of Bermuda, Mexico, Barbados, Belize, Cuba, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Jamaica, Montserrat, Panama, Puerto Rico, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Trinidad and Tobago, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Venezuela.

[12] Wood from Sterculia apetala is used to produce cases, crates, industrial and domestic woodware, canoes, and tool handles.

[4][12] In some regions, seeds are consumed after being boiled or roasted, used to flavor chocolate, or given to animals as fodder.

[13] In the Pantanal wetlands of Central Brazil, the endangered hyacinth macaw (Anodorhynchus hyacinthinus) makes its nest almost exclusively in the natural hollows of S.