Where baobabs grow: country, interesting facts and features. Baobab: description, interesting facts (photos, videos) Let's get to know it better

24.05.2016

Adansonia is the scientific name for baobabs. This is a genus of trees from the Malvaceae family. Inhabitants of dry savannas and semi-deserts of tropical Africa, Australia, Madagascar and some small islands. These are extremely unusual plants, rich in paradoxes. Let's get to know them better. To do this, we have collected the most interesting facts about baobabs.

1. The genus Adansonia received its name from the famous taxonomist Carl Linnaeus. He named it in honor of the famous explorer of Africa, one of the founders of the taxonomy of the French botanist Michel Adanson, who gave a detailed description of the baobab.
2. Baobab has only 8 species, six of which are endemic to Madagascar. One species is common in Australia, and the last (Adansonia palmata) is typical of Africa and nearby small islands.
3. The baobab is called a tree “on the contrary”, a tree “upside down”, a tree growing with its roots in the sky and many other nicknames that reflect the amazing appearance of this colossus, which nature has endowed with a large squat trunk and powerful branches stretching to the sky just like the roots go into the ground.
4. The trunk circumference of this tree varies depending on the season and can sometimes exceed 25 meters in diameter. The fact is that its trunk stores water for periods of drought, which helps the plant survive in harsh conditions and save nearby animals and people from thirst. With the arrival of rains, its loose trunk fills with water and swells, for which it is also called a bottle tree. It can store 100 and even 130 thousand liters of water. This is enough to survive the entire dry season, during which it becomes significantly narrower.
5. Due to the nature of the wood, the age of the baobab cannot be determined by its annual growth rings. Attempts to date the tree using radiocarbon dating have dated a tree in Namibia to be approximately 1,400 years old. According to scientists, this durable tree can live from 2 to 4 thousand years, depending on growth conditions.
6. Baobab is the only tree that can restore bark in places where its wood has been exposed.
7. Its roots first grow downward, but do not penetrate deeper than 3-4 meters, then grow laterally from the trunk up to 50 meters. Its roots are relatively weak, despite the fact that the rest of the tree is colossal in size. It is very sensitive to winds, which often uproot it.
8. I call baobab monkey breadfruit because these animals love the juicy pulp of its fruit. The word baobab comes from the Arabic "buhibab" - a fruit with many seeds. The fruit pulp has a sour taste. It becomes mealy when ripe and contains about a hundred seeds in the form of beans.
9. The baobab tree has few leaves. Measuring 15 cm in length, they are arranged alternately and are finger-shaped. Each of them consists of 5-7 lanceolate leaflets, arranged like fingers on a hand, hence the name of the species - digitata (finger). They fall off at the beginning of the dry season.
10. Adansonia palmata blooms at the end of the dry season. Its large, white pendulous flowers with a long or very long stalk and five petals reach from 10 cm to a meter in length. They begin to open in the afternoon at sunset. Opened in the evening, they fall the next day between dawn and sunrise. During their short life of only 12 hours, they emit a very strong odor, similar to the smell of a rotting fruit. All other baobabs have flowers that point upward. Hanging flowers are pollinated by animals in the form of fruit bats, bats, and baobabs with flowers growing upward are most often pollinated by butterflies. Some nectar-eating mammals also serve as pollinators, for example poppies - small lemurs that feed on the flowers, fruits and leaves of these trees.
11. Baobab leaves are mercilessly eaten by animals, young branches are cut down by people. Fortunately, the baobab tree has the strength to survive these adversities. It has a thick layer of chlorophyll under its bark, which allows the tree to survive in the absence of leaves. This is especially necessary during the dry season when the leaves completely fall off.
12. People use all parts of the plant except its loose wood, although water is extracted from it in dry times. Rope was made from the bark of Adansonia digitata. Juice is obtained from the pulp of its fruits. The fruits are simply eaten like candy. The young leaves are cooked like spinach and are rich in iron and calcium. Ground and prepared for compresses, they have gained fame as an antipyretic.
13. In Senegal, griots (singers, musicians, storytellers of the peoples of West Africa) were buried in baobab trees so that their remains would not deplete the soil. They did the same with lepers in Burkina Faso.

In some areas of Madagascar, there have been no young baobab trees for several centuries. Two species endemic to this large island are soon to be threatened with extinction. Botanists save the remains of these species by storing their seeds in specially created seed banks. Is this tree, of great value to humans, destined to one day disappear? Will the baobab one day be wiped off the face of the Earth? Everything depends on us.

This type of tree grows in the dry climate of Africa. The thickness of the tree is about 8 meters, the height is up to 25 meters. Although, one specimen, included in the Guinness Book of Records, had a diameter of more than 16 meters!

Most plants and animals have official names in Latin. This fate did not spare the hero of this article. Its official name is Adansonia digitata. The tree was named after the French explorer and botanist Michel Adanson. Well, “finger” - because of the shape of the leaves.

The baobab tree is so large in part because in winter in Africa the climate becomes very dry and the tree has to store up moisture, which it uses up during dry periods.

Interestingly, towards the end of the year the tree begins to bloom. But he does it in a very unusual way. Flowers bloom in the evening only to wither and fall the next morning. You can guess the size of the flowers yourself.

The baobab also has fruits that are covered with a thick peel and which are very popular among monkeys.

Since the baobab trunk contains a huge amount of water, it gradually begins to rot from the inside.

Interestingly, it is impossible to accurately determine the age of the trees, since they do not have rings on the trunk. However, scientists agree on a maximum of a thousand years.

Interesting video about baobabs

Besides its impressive appearance, almost any part of wood can be used for something. Thus, local residents use it in the preparation of nets, clothing, salads, coffee, medicines, drinks, dishes, soap, shampoos, and oil.

In especially large trees, residents cut down rooms for themselves to live in.

Well, the most interesting cases are the placement of a bus stop, a prison, a bathhouse in the trunk.

As you can see, baobab is a very useful tree. And one can only regret that the tree does not grow in our climate.)

Impressive baobab trees can surprise even a seasoned botanist. Where else could such an amazing creation of nature grow, if not in Africa, famous for its strange flora and fauna? These mighty trees live a very long time and they have adapted to survive even in desert conditions. It is really very interesting to admire them.

Facts about baobabs

• Like most other deciduous trees, they shed their leaves for the winter. True, not because of the cold, but because of the heat and dryness.
• In winter, that is, the driest time, baobabs “lose weight” - they decrease in volume, as they begin to consume the moisture stored in the trunk.
• Old baobabs are usually hollow inside. One of these even has a hotel room.
• In the African country of Zimbabwe there is a small train station built inside a giant old baobab tree.
• Large baobab flowers reach 20 centimeters in diameter, but their lifespan is very short - only one night, after which they wither and fall off.
• Baobab wood is porous - this helps it store a lot of water. And thanks to this, baobabs are not cut down, since it is difficult to build something durable from such material.
• Baobabs have fruits. Outwardly, they resemble shaggy cucumbers or melons. By the way, they are quite edible, and monkeys readily feed on them. These fruits taste like fresh ginger.
• In Madagascar, the baobab is considered a national symbol ().
• The girth of the trunks of the oldest and largest baobab trees known to us reaches 50 meters.
• Baobabs are pollinated not by bees, but by bats, which feed on nectar.
• The bark stripped from this tree grows back very quickly.
• A felled baobab may well take root again and continue to exist in this form.

• It is not known for certain how long baobabs live. At least a thousand years, but some scientists call the period 4 thousand years or more.
• Some African tribes roast baobab fruits and then brew what they get, resulting in a drink that is vaguely similar to coffee.
• From the ash of baobab wood, African healers make remedies for colds and other diseases, and the bark is used to make fishing nets and ropes.
• Informally, the baobab is sometimes called the lemonade tree, since its fruits, dried, crushed and dissolved in water, allow you to prepare a drink reminiscent of lemonade.
• The baobab is depicted on the coats of arms of two countries - the Central African Republic (CAR) and Senegal.
• Young baobab leaves are edible. Some Africans use them as one of the ingredients for salad.
• This is one of the few trees that does not have growth rings. That is why it is difficult to determine the age of the baobab.
• Most often, the baobab tree is only three times as tall as it is wide, but there are exceptions.

Among the amazing wonders of the flora of Africa, and specifically its tropical part, one of the dominant places belongs to the baobab. It is widespread in the zone of hot African savannas, which are tropical forest-steppes, where the year usually consists of only two months-long seasons, replacing each other - hot rainy and hot dry.

It is difficult to find other plants in Africa that enjoy the same ardent love of the local population as the miracle baobab tree. It is absolutely unique and cannot be confused with any other. The circumference of some baobab specimens exceeds 10 m.

The extraordinary vitality of the baobab tree is also amazing. When the bark is torn off, the baobab, unlike many other trees, does not die - the bark grows back. The baobab tree does not die even when it falls to the ground. If after this at least one root remains in contact with the ground, the tree will continue to grow lying down.

Basically, baobabs are not too tall, but according to some reports that appeared in the press not long ago, a real giant was found in the African savannas - the tallest tree on our planet, reaching 189 m in height, with a trunk diameter of 43.5 m! Well, in 1991, the Guinness Book of Records recorded a baobab tree with a girth of 54.5 m.

Often, huge hollows appear in the trunks of these “green giants.” For example, the outstanding English traveler Livingston wrote about how 20-30 people slept peacefully in a huge hollow of a dried-out baobab tree, and no one bothered anyone.

In Kenya, on the Nairobi-Mobasa highway, there is a baobab shelter, the hollow of which is equipped with a door and a window. In Zimbabwe, a bus station is located in the hollow of one of the baobab trees, the waiting room of which can accommodate up to 40 people. Near the town of Kasana in the Republic of Botswana, a baobab grew, the hollow of which served as a prison.

In Namibia there is a baobab tree, in the hollow of which there is a bathhouse, which even has a bathtub.

Baobab is a highly versatile tree:

• Baobab fruits, reminiscent of large cucumbers, are characterized by excellent taste and a high content of various vitamins, and in terms of nutrition they are equal to veal. The fruits are quickly absorbed by the body and can relieve fatigue. The fruits of the baobab are used not only by people - they are very fond of monkeys, who willingly live among the lush foliage of baobabs, which is why the latter received the name “monkey tree”.
• The dried hard shell of the fruit is used instead of a glass, and the smoke released when the dry inside of the fruit is burned perfectly drives away mosquitoes and other insects.
• The seed of the baobab fruit is edible raw, and after roasting and grinding, it is used to make coffee.
• The ash of the fruit is used to make soap and, most surprisingly, cooking oil.
• East African women wash their hair with powder made from the fruit of the baobab tree, and the red juice contained in its roots is used to paint their faces.
• I make a delicious salad from baobab leaves and make soup, and the young shoots are boiled like asparagus.
• Baobab flower dust is used to make glue.
• From the ash that appears when burning baobab bark, quite effective medicines are made for colds, dysentery, fever, cardiovascular diseases, toothache, asthma, and insect bites.

In the minds of most people, the image of the baobab is strongly associated with Africa. In fact, there are nine varieties of this tree, which grows in the hot, arid zones of not only Africa, but also Australia and the island of Madagascar. It is called the “tree of life”, there are legends about it, and especially large specimens attract hundreds of tourists. What is so unusual about the baobab tree?


The baobab is one of the largest trees on the planet. In height it reaches a relatively modest 25 meters, but in girth it can show twice the result!

Mature trees often become hollow and can accommodate up to 120,000 liters of water. Recent research has found that in many cases the internal cavity is created by the fusion of several trunks, each of which can be hundreds of years old.


In the past, these giant trees often became homes and shelters for people. Australia even has a "prison baobab", which was used as a place of imprisonment in the late 19th century.

There are two versions of how the baobab arrived in Australia. Perhaps the fruits that fell into the water floated there from distant Africa and spread from the coast. Another theory suggests that the population has survived from a time when Africa and Australia were part of the same continent, ancient Gondwana. This continent existed 65 million years ago.


Baobabs grow very slowly. All those giants that attract the attention of tourists are many hundreds of years old. There are quite a few of them, because in the harsh conditions of savannahs only the hardiest and luckiest live long. The main enemies of these trees are waterlogging, drought, lightning and elephants, as well as a disease called “black fungus”.

There are no growth rings on the cut of a baobab tree, like many other trees. Therefore, carbon dating is used to determine their age. Scientists have found that the largest specimens reach an age of 2-3 thousand years.

The baobab is a deciduous tree that spends most of the year without leaves. Since greenery, flowers and fruits appear on it only during the rainy season, tourists usually see only thick, bare branches that look like roots.

According to ancient legend, the baobab was among the first trees to appear on Earth. He had a chance to observe the appearance of other representatives of the flora. When the baobab saw the palm tree, it began to loudly complain that it was not so elegant and slender. When the fire delonix tree appeared, he was jealous of the beautiful flowers. Noticing a fig tree, he began to lament that its fruits were much better. In the end, God turned the baobab over, sticking its top into the ground so that he would no longer hear the endless whining.

Another legend says that God gave a tree to each of the animals and instructed them to plant them. The baobab went to the stupid hyena, who planted it upside down.


Indigenous peoples revere the baobab, respectfully calling it the “tree of life.” They actively use his gifts in everyday life. The fruits are valued for their nutritional and medicinal properties, and the young leaves are eaten as salad. Red dye is obtained from the roots of the tree, and fiber is obtained from the inner layer of the bark for ropes, clothing and even strings for musical instruments.

Since ancient times, tribal elders have conferred at the foot of the baobab tree, because they believed that the spirits of the tree would help them in making decisions. By tradition, public meetings are often held today under the shadow of these giants.

On the eve of the rainy season, dark green, glossy leaves of an unusual appearance appear on the tree. In their structure they resemble chestnut or lupine.

The tree blooms at about twenty years of age. Large and beautiful white flowers bloom at night, emitting a strong musky scent. They are pollinated by flying foxes, moths and bats, which are attracted by insects interested in nectar.


Among local residents, it is considered unacceptable to pick flowers, because spirits like to inhabit them. But their lifespan is already short: after a day, the flowers fall off, becoming food for herbivores.

Baobab fruits ripen in large pods, shaped like a mango fruit. Today they are widely used for artistic carving and making souvenirs. Scraping off the dark top surface reveals the light inner layer.


The average weight of a baobab fruit is 1.5 kg., but can reach 3 kg. It contains three times the vitamin C of an orange, twice the calcium of milk, and tastes like a cross between pineapple and melon. The pulp has a sour, tart aroma that is described as a mixture of grapefruit, pear and vanilla.

Local residents believe that those who drink the water where the baobab fruits were soaked will not be afraid of crocodiles.

The trunk of the baobab tree is very thick, and the bark is relatively soft. The numerous cracks and irregularities on the tree's body are home to hundreds of living creatures: spiders, scorpions, snakes, tree frogs, squirrels, lizards, birds and insects.

Baobabs are accustomed to surviving in arid conditions and always store large volumes of water in their trunks. Therefore, elephants, antelopes and other animals readily chew their bark during dry seasons.

At one time it was believed that baobabs were on the verge of extinction. This misconception was due to the fact that young trees are not at all similar to their powerful parents. Fortunately, things aren't that bad. Although, of course, these giants are not immune from the destructive influence of man. Today, the baobab is still on the list of endangered plants due to habitat loss.