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Baobab Tree

Adansonia digitata

Status: Baobabs have been suffering from the rapidly changing climate. They are an important part of savanna ecology, as their fruit is favored by bats and other pollinators, and the large trunks provide shelter for insects, animals, and birds.

The largest baobab is in South Madagascar. While there are many baobabs on a reserve, there is one that is estimated to be 1500 years old, and is named Reniala, meaning "mother of the forest" in Malagasy, for her size and shape. She towers above the smaller trees, grand and majestic.

With its stout bulbous shape and smaller wending crown of branches upon its apex, the baobab is a distinct silhouette upon the savanna, prompting various stories as to its origin.

A common story is that when God first made the baobab, it was a beautiful tree with spreading branches, and it was situated in the Congo basin. The baobab however was finicky and found the excessive moisture of the region distasteful. After much complaining and insults, which the other beings and animals were sorely tired of hearing, God finally plucked the baobab out of the earth in exasperation and threw it in the driest part of Africa, where it landed upside-down and was finally silenced.

In South Africa, it is told that the Great Spirit gave trees to the first man, and he also gave a tree to each animal. Hyena was the last to receive his tree, and in a fit of pique at being at the tail end of the roster, he threw his tree, and it landed upside-down.

 

References:
Wickens, G. E. (1982). The Baobab: Africa's Upside-Down Tree. Kew Bulletin, 37(2), 173-209. https://doi.org/10.2307/4109961

Wickens, G.E.; Lowe, P. (2008). The Baobabs: Pachycauls of Africa, Madagascar and Australia. Springer Verlag, UK.

Pander, Heike. "'Bad Mouth' of Baobab". Baobab Stories, January 2016. https://baobabstories.com/en/bad-mouth-of-baobab/