Trees of Africa and Australia: Baobab (Adansonia digitata and other species)

Trees of Africa and Australia: Baobab (Adansonia digitata and other species).
Notes by J. Zimmerman, Ph.D.

Discover the world's widest tree, the baobab.

The trunk of the baobab can store more than 30,000 gallons of water. Its size varies as it uses and collects water.

Recommended books.

Purchase The Remarkable Baobab: " From the best-selling author of Remarkable Trees of the World, a celebration of the most extraordinary tree of them all. Standing tall on the sunburned plains of Africa and Australia, baobabs may be the oldest life forms on the planet. Many of the specimens still standing today have been around for well over two thousand years. Tremendous in size and bizarre in appearance, they have provided food, medicine, and places of refuge and worship to countless peoples, even serving as prisons and tombs on occasion." [ Product Description at Amazon.]

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Baobab (Adansonia digitata and other species): Description.

• Leaves:
  1. Deciduous tree, with new leaves appearing in late spring or early summer.
  2. A. digitata's leaves have 5-to-7 leaflets, which can seem to be like fingers (hence "digitata").
• Shape and Trunk:
  1. A fat tree, due to its short, thick, grey trunk. May be the widest trunk in the world, up to 45 feet in diameter.
  2. Not tall, usually 45-75 feet.
  3. A few thin branches spread from the top of the trunk.
  4. The trunk of a baobab stores water, and its size may vary from season to season, as it uses water or stores it.
• Reproduction:
  1. 6"-wide sweet-scented flowers.
  2. Pollinated by nocturnal creatures, including bats.
  3. Egg-shaped fruit with a green velvety coating over a woody, thick shell.
  4. Flesh of the fruit is white and pulpy, and holds the black seeds.

Baobab Facts.

• Eight species of baobab:
  1. A. digitata is found thoughout Africa, from South Africa to Sudan.
  2. Six species of baobab occur in Madagascar. A. grandidieri is one of these; its spectacular, broad, smooth trunk is topped by a few short leavy branches.
  3. The eighth species of baobab occurs in northern Australia.
• The largest living baobab is in South Africa's Northern Province, and is 45 feet in diameter.
• Carbon dates of 15-feet diameter trees show ages over 1000 years for A. digitata.
• A. gregorii (in Australia) is believed to live over 2000 years.
• The largest baobabs are said to contain more than 30,000 gallons of water.
• The trunk size may vary from season to season, as the tree uses water or stores it.
• The strong fibrous inner bark (phloem or bast) can be made into ropes, sacks, nets, hats, etc.
• Leaves, pulp, and bark have been used to fight fevers.
• Pulp and seeds of the fruit are used as food, as are young leaves and shoots.

Links and References.

• Some of the above data are abstracted from the beautifully written and gorgeously illustrated Ancient Trees: Trees that Live for a Thousand Years by Anna Lewington and Edward Parker.
• Home and Index of Articles.
• Dawn Redwood (Metasequoia glyptostroboides)
• Fig (Ficus), sacred to many in Asia.
• Ginkgo.
• Pines.
• Welwitschia mirabilis, the Namibian survivalist tree.

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Glossary pages: A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, J, K, L, M, N, O, P, Q, R, S, T, U, V, W, X, Y, Z.

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