Source: Photograph (2010) by WTL© on site in Cuba.
Comments: This is a ceiba tree. It is a tropical tree found in the Caribbean, Mexico, Central and South America, an in other tropical regions. It can grow to about 230 feet high; it is notable for, as you see, buttress roots, a straight, mostly branchless trunk with a canopy that spreads out at the top (often much larger than what you see here). The ceiba tree is found in pre-Columbian Mayan myths like the Popol Vuh, in which it represents mythically and really the central tree of the world where the trunk connects the Underworld (Xibalbá) with the world of human reality and the skies or heaven.
Humanities comparison: Compare and contrast this tree in the context of this botanical garden with the same kind of tree studied elsewhere in this online textbook: See: => Tikal #5b.