The baobab Tree
Created | Updated Jan 28, 2002
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THE BAOBAB TREE
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<img src="http://www.h2g2.redhotant.com/pillowcase/kremersmall.jpg" align=right hspace=20 vspace=20 width=300 height=240 alt="Baobab Tree"> There is already an entry on baobab trees at A295472. This entry is my personal one and basically an excuse to put in a photograph of the baobab tree. Without it my user page will not be complete!
The picture on the right shows a handsome, average-sized specimen standing in the Messina Nature Reserve in South Africa, photographed in wintertime when the tree stands bare.
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Here's a bit of additional info. The baobab is in fact the largest succulent in the world. Its immensely obese trunk is an adaptation for storing water to keep the baobab going through the many, many months of the dry season. The trunk contains little woody tissue. When a tree dies, it collapses inward upon itself. After a few days, all that is left of it is an enormous, shapeless, fibrous mound from which a few dry twigs protrude.
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But in life, the baobab is an impressive spectacle to witness. Average trees stand thirty to forty feet tall, and big ones reach eighty feet. But more impressive than the height is the girth. A trunk with a circumference of fifty feet is no big deal. The biggest ones exceed a hundred feet. In South Africa the biggest tree stands in the northern province, and has a trunk 140 feet around.
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As said in the official entry, native Africans have a legend that God kicked the Baobab out of heaven and it landed upside down, so that its roots stick up into the air and its real branches are buried. If you look at the photo you'll see the root-like appearance of the twiggy branches.
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Another legend has it that there are no young baobab trees, only fully grown ones. Indeed the baobabs that are evident are all large trees. But of course they start out naturally as small, young trees. The saplings look very different from the adult trees: instead of leaves that branch palmately into three to nine leaflets, the young trees have undivided leaves similar to those of many other trees. Also, the young trees have ordinary, thin trunks; it takes many decades of growth before the swelling of the trunk becomes noteworthy.
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At the top of the trunk there is often a hollow in which rainwater collects, which provides refreshment for anything from baboons to birds. If it contains no water, this hollow is also used to provide a nest for ground hornbills. Sometimes the entire trunk is hollow - in which case humans utilise it for purposes detailed in the official entry.
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The only natural enemy that the baobab tree has is the elephant. Elephants love baobab bark, and even eat pieces of the trunk itself, chewing it to extract the moisture. Because of the relatively soft trunk baobabs are easily destroyed by elephants; their only protection is to grow on steep hills that the elephants cannot climb. In elephant-free areas they have no problem growing on level plains.
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Judging by the growth rate and the size of big specimens, baobabs can reach ages of a thousand years or more. These trees occur in substantial numbers and are not endangered, but they benefit so many other kinds of creature that it would be a good idea to protect them and to promote them in suitable areas.
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The official entry mentions Africa and Australia. Another place where baobabs occur is Madagascar. In fact a number of different species in the genus <i>Adansonia</i> grow there. I don't know a lot about those, but I believe they are called bottle trees.
<head>
<h1 align=left>
THE BAOBAB TREE
</h1>
</head>
<body>
<p>
<img src="http://www.h2g2.redhotant.com/pillowcase/kremersmall.jpg" align=right hspace=20 vspace=20 width=300 height=240 alt="Baobab Tree"> There is already an entry on baobab trees at A295472. This entry is my personal one and basically an excuse to put in a photograph of the baobab tree. Without it my user page will not be complete!
The picture on the right shows a handsome, average-sized specimen standing in the Messina Nature Reserve in South Africa, photographed in wintertime when the tree stands bare.
</p>
<p>
Here's a bit of additional info. The baobab is in fact the largest succulent in the world. Its immensely obese trunk is an adaptation for storing water to keep the baobab going through the many, many months of the dry season. The trunk contains little woody tissue. When a tree dies, it collapses inward upon itself. After a few days, all that is left of it is an enormous, shapeless, fibrous mound from which a few dry twigs protrude.
</p>
<p>
But in life, the baobab is an impressive spectacle to witness. Average trees stand thirty to forty feet tall, and big ones reach eighty feet. But more impressive than the height is the girth. A trunk with a circumference of fifty feet is no big deal. The biggest ones exceed a hundred feet. In South Africa the biggest tree stands in the northern province, and has a trunk 140 feet around.
</p>
<p>
As said in the official entry, native Africans have a legend that God kicked the Baobab out of heaven and it landed upside down, so that its roots stick up into the air and its real branches are buried. If you look at the photo you'll see the root-like appearance of the twiggy branches.
</p>
<p>
Another legend has it that there are no young baobab trees, only fully grown ones. Indeed the baobabs that are evident are all large trees. But of course they start out naturally as small, young trees. The saplings look very different from the adult trees: instead of leaves that branch palmately into three to nine leaflets, the young trees have undivided leaves similar to those of many other trees. Also, the young trees have ordinary, thin trunks; it takes many decades of growth before the swelling of the trunk becomes noteworthy.
</p>
<p>
At the top of the trunk there is often a hollow in which rainwater collects, which provides refreshment for anything from baboons to birds. If it contains no water, this hollow is also used to provide a nest for ground hornbills. Sometimes the entire trunk is hollow - in which case humans utilise it for purposes detailed in the official entry.
</p>
<p>
The only natural enemy that the baobab tree has is the elephant. Elephants love baobab bark, and even eat pieces of the trunk itself, chewing it to extract the moisture. Because of the relatively soft trunk baobabs are easily destroyed by elephants; their only protection is to grow on steep hills that the elephants cannot climb. In elephant-free areas they have no problem growing on level plains.
</p>
<p>
Judging by the growth rate and the size of big specimens, baobabs can reach ages of a thousand years or more. These trees occur in substantial numbers and are not endangered, but they benefit so many other kinds of creature that it would be a good idea to protect them and to promote them in suitable areas.
</p>
<p>
The official entry mentions Africa and Australia. Another place where baobabs occur is Madagascar. In fact a number of different species in the genus <i>Adansonia</i> grow there. I don't know a lot about those, but I believe they are called bottle trees.
