Which country has a baobab on its coat of arms. Baobab is an unusual tree in Africa. African peoples revere the baobab tree as a symbol of abundance. Let's get to know him better
An ancient legend of African aborigines tells the following about the baobab: “On the bank of a fast, deep river, God set aside a lawn for the baobab. The tree became capricious, it really didn’t like growing on the damp bank. The Creator carefully moved the baobab to the slope high mountain, but the disgruntled tree didn’t like it again. Then the angry Lord stuck it in the middle of the barren savannah, upside down." So now the baobab grows in the arid African desert.
Previously, the baobab was not considered a tall tree; the championship among the tallest trees was held for many years by sequoia and eucalyptus. However, not so long ago, in Africa they discovered baobab of gigantic size. The crown of the tree shot up to the very clouds, and the height of the plant was 189 meters. Baobab trees are long-lived. At the end of the 18th century, researcher of African flora Michael Adanson found a gigantic baobab tree. Its trunk exceeded 9 meters in diameter, and age was 5150 years. Baobab highlighted Alexander Humboldt, calling this tree the most ancient monument of our planet.
To embrace such a huge baobab, a whole classroom should have joined hands.
The baobab is highly respected by the indigenous people of Equatorial Africa; the tree is given many nicknames for its amazing properties. And its real name was given to it by Carl Linnaeus; the scientific name of the baobab sounds poetic - “ adansonia».
The baobab has adapted to life in a waterless area, in terrible heat. Its roots go deep into the ground for many kilometers in search of water. Tree bark damaged by people or elephants recovers surprisingly quickly. Baobab is not afraid of destructive steppe fires. If the flame damages the tree, even burns out its core, the persistent giant continues to grow. Huge hollows are formed in the trunk of the baobab due to damage to the soft core by mushrooms. But even then the tree continues to serve man. Rainwater accumulates in the hollow trunk, which local residents use during dry times. Some tribes bury their leaders in hollows. Scientists have discovered another interesting phenomenon - baobab accumulates uranium in its wood.
Baobab flower. For a long time It remained a mystery who pollinates the baobab flowers? It turned out that at night, baobab flowers are pollinated by bats, which fly in to feast on flower nectar.
In the desert where this amazing tree grows, there is a very hot, drying summer. The baobab sheds its leaves during this period to reduce moisture loss. But in winter, when the rainy season begins, the tree is covered with young, dense foliage and blooms. Adansonia flowers are large, up to 20 cm in diameter, with delicate white petals. At night, baobab flowers are pollinated by bats, which fly in to feast on the flower nectar.
After some time, the fruits, similar to long cucumbers, ripen. The pulp of the fruit is juicy and soft - local monkeys are not averse to eating them. Locals call the baobab monkey breadfruit .
Local residents eat baobab fruits.
All parts of the tree are used by local residents. The seeds and fruits are used to prepare refreshing drinks and medicines; the leaves are used to prepare National dishes. The roasted fruits are eaten, and the extract from the seeds is used for poisoning. Strong bark fibers are used in making ropes and coarse fabrics, and they are also used to make strings for African musical instruments.
When dying, the baobab does not fall to the ground - it crumbles, leaving behind a pile of fibers. Savannah residents respect the unique tree; everyone tries to plant a baobab next to their hut.
Baobab is a species of trees belonging to the genus Adaxonia, family - Malvaceae, order - Malvaceae, class - Dicotyledonous, division Flowering, kingdom - Plants.
Among the common characteristics of all malvachues is the palmate shape of the leaves.
When people start talking about the ancient green giants, the first thing that comes to mind is the amazing trees - baobabs. Scientists call them living monuments of the planet and believe that some trees in Senegal are between 5 and 5.5 thousand years old. Unfortunately, it is impossible to confirm this data, since the baobab tree does not have rings from which the age of the tree can be calculated.
African baobab - commonly known as Adansōnia. It received its championship for its interesting appearance: its height is quite small - only 18-25 m, but its overly swollen trunks reach 10 m in diameter and 30-40 m in circumference. In 1991, the Guinness Book of Records talked about the baobab with a circumference of 54.5 meters. Its crown was almost 38 meters in diameter.
Adansonia palmata is a deciduous tree with uniquely shaped branches that look more like roots.
On the island of Madagascar there is an alley of baobabs belonging to the species Adansonia grandidieri
Adansonia fony
These extraordinary trees begin to bloom when there are no leaves on them yet. At this time, the baobab looks simply magnificent: buds appear on long thin stalks on bare, twisted branches.
In the evening they bloom into huge (up to 20cm) snow-white flowers that continue to bloom for only one night.
With their aroma they attract bats, which pollinate the plant. These animals have a specific sense of smell, because the smell of baobab flowers is more reminiscent of decomposition. It is better for an unprepared tourist to view this miracle of nature from afar, otherwise he will be disappointed by the aroma without having time to admire the flowers.
The giants' wood is porous and soft, and during rains it can accumulate up to 120 thousand liters of water. Thanks to this, elephants have chosen baobabs: the animals almost completely eat strange trees, simultaneously receiving food and water.
With the onset of heat, the baobab tree decreases in size. High humidity of wood favors the attack by pathogenic fungi, which cause the appearance of huge voids in the trunks. Indigenous people adapt them for storage rooms, and sometimes even for temporary housing. But this is not the only use of the trunk: in one of the villages of Northern Australia and in the town of Kasane in Botswana, the emptiness of the green giant was adapted into a prison.
Adansonia grandidieri
In Zimbabwe, a baobab tree replaced a bus station, easily accommodating 40 passengers, and in Namibia, a bathhouse was built in an empty tree trunk, which even fit a bathtub.
The natives eat the leaves, bark, fruits and seeds of the baobab tree, and make the most unexpected things from them: spices, dishes, drinks, soap, vegetable oil, paints, fabrics, medicine, glue, threads, strings, fishing nets and strong ropes that even an elephant cannot break.
Baobab tree video
The miracle baobab tree is not the only water storage plant in nature: the Moringa flask tree in South-West Africa, the Idria tree from California, which looks like an upside-down carrot, and Australian bottle plants survive in a similar way in difficult conditions. .
Many of us remember these trees from childhood. Even careless students probably learned from school geography lessons that there is an unusual tree in warm countries: thick, capable of living for a very long time. And it has a funny name that sticks in your memory - baobab. But where the baobab actually grows and what the properties of this tree are, not many people know.
Let's get to know him better
Baobabs - interesting plants from the mallow family. That huge tree, living in our memory since childhood, is called by botanists Adansonia digitata. It consists of the name of the scientist - Adanson, who studied the tropics of Africa, and Latin word"digitata" - fingered. The leaves of the tree resemble an outstretched palm with 5 to 7 fingers.
But there are others in the baobab genus, less known species, which we’ll talk about a little later.
The baobab tree looks very interesting! Looking at it, sometimes it seems as if the plant was planted upside down. On a huge, thick trunk, completely bare, rises an upstretched “armful” of crown, and its branches are also half-naked. The effect is enhanced during periods of drought, when baobab trees completely lose their leaves. Then it seems that the roots of a tree are sticking out above the surface, the real branches of which are hidden underground.
Baobabs are the champions among trees in terms of trunk thickness. They often have it 8 - 9 meters in diameter! There is evidence that some trees even reached 14 meters, but these are already champions of champions. Often even small cafes are placed in the hollows of baobab trees to attract tourists.
But although the height of these trees is large, about 25 meters, they seem rather squat compared to the volume of the trunk.
Among interesting facts The following can be remembered about baobabs:
- The trunk of a dead baobab does not rot or dry out, but simply turns into a pile of dust.
- Baobab pulp is 6 times richer in vitamin C than orange pulp.
- Fabrics and ropes are made from tree bark.
- Giant baobab flowers are pollinated not by insects, but by bats.
How long a baobab tree lives is not easy to find out
The fact is that its wood does not have growth rings, like the vast majority of other trees. And this is one of the amazing features of baobabs. Inside, they resemble a dense sponge that can accumulate water. Having “drunk”, the tree can then grow for a long time in hot, dry climates, using its internal “reservoir”. Surprisingly, during such periods the baobab trunk even decreases slightly in diameter!
Knowing about such properties of the plant, elephants sometimes overwhelm the baobab tree if it is not yet very large, and literally eat its trunk, biting off the succulent wood.
Therefore, you can only find out how long a baobab lives using the radiocarbon method. Research shows that many of the trees were probably about a thousand years old. In South Africa, Limpopo province, there is a living baobab tree, whose age is estimated at 6,000 thousand years! There has been a bar inside it for many years. True, not all scientists agree with this assessment of his age. Perhaps the business component also had an influence here. But science does not deny that some baobab trees can live up to 4000 years.
And yet - where to find it?
Returning to our main question, where in nature can you see these amazing trees, we will answer - not only in Africa. Of course, African land, namely the areas of savannas and woodlands, is the main “habitat” of tree giants. Baobabs have become a real symbol of African savannas (steppes, in our opinion).
But, in addition to Africa, the island of Madagascar can also be considered the birthplace of baobabs. However, there is nothing surprising in this, because by the standards of geological history, the island broke away from the mainland relatively recently.
The baobab is the most characteristic tree of the African savannah. It is famous for its unusual proportions. This amazing and mystical tree sometimes reaches 30 meters in height and more than 10 meters in width. Baobabs take a variety of shapes from jugs to teapots... Baobab wood is loose and contains a lot of water, which the plant stores for the dry season. The baobab tree can store as much as 120,000 liters of water to withstand severe drought conditions...
An African legend says that the creator planted a baobab tree in the Congo River valley, but the tree began to complain of dampness. Then the creator transplanted it to the slope of the Moon Mountains, but even here the baobab was not happy. Angry at the constant complaints of the tree, God tore it out and threw it onto dry African soil. Since then, the baobab has been growing upside down.
Baobab is a sacred tree in Africa. And many myths and legends are associated with it... For example, if you give a baby a drink from a container made of baobab wood, he will become strong and powerful...
And if you dare to pick a Baobab flower, a lion will eat you... Well, if you drink the water in which the seeds of this tree were soaked, you will become invulnerable to a crocodile...
No one can say exactly how old the baobab is - it does not have annual rings like other trees. No one doubts that it is a long-liver, and an age of a thousand years is considered quite normal for this plant. Some researchers even say that baobabs live for five thousand years!
There are as many as 8 species of baobabs in the world.
The wide trunk of the baobab at the top splits into many intricately curved branches. Its small leaves do not correspond to the size of the tree. But it turns out that it is precisely these leaves that enable the tree to tolerate drought well. The smaller the leaf size, the smaller the evaporation area and the greater the opportunity to retain moisture. During the dry season, trees usually shed their leaves. The baobab tree spends 9 months of the year without leaves. In general, the leaves are edible.
Local residents have found use for almost any part of the baobab tree. From its bark a coarse, strong fiber is obtained, which is used to make fishing nets, ropes, mats and fabrics. Young leaves are added to salads, dry leaves are used as spices; in Nigeria they are used to make soup. The fruit pulp, which tastes like ginger and is rich in vitamins C and B, is dried and ground into powder; diluted in water, it gives soft drink, slightly similar to “lemonade”, hence another name for baobab - lemonade tree. Roasted seeds are used as a coffee substitute.
The fruits of baobabs are ovoid, thick-walled, tomentose-pubescent capsules; they contain many small black seeds distributed by animals. The seeds are embedded in white pulp, the sour taste of which attracts many animals, especially monkeys, which is why the baobab is also called monkey bread.
Baobab fruits, as scientists have found, are rich in vitamins C, B1, B2, they also contain large quantities contains calcium and antioxidants. At the same time, baobab is 6 times higher in vitamin C than oranges, and its calcium content is 2 times higher than in milk.
At the beginning of the wet season, huge flowers (15-20 cm in diameter) bloom. They hang on long stalks like large snow globes with purple stamens. Each baobab flower lives only one night and withers at dawn. Feasting on the pollen and nectar of flowers, bats and lemurs pollinate them. At night, these animals mysteriously rustle the leaves on the tree. No wonder Africans believed that a spirit lives in every baobab flower.
After flowering, small fruits appear, which, growing, become the size of a zucchini.
Until recently, baobab was prohibited from being eaten in Europe, but a couple of years ago permission was received. True, Europeans will become acquainted with the new product only in a processed form. The pulp of baobab fruits is planned to be used in fruit cocktails and nectars, as well as an additive in muesli.
In local medicine, the fruit pulp, juice, leaves and bark were used as remedies against various fevers and dysentery. Medicines similar to quinine are obtained from baobab bark. Baobab pulp powder improves immunity, lowers cholesterol, and reduces menstrual pain. Baobab is especially good for the skin - it not only improves its condition, but also nourishes the skin, relieves irritation and inflammatory processes and restores the epidermis in case of burns.
Baobab is a delicacy for elephants. African giants eat them almost entirely, not only the leaves and branches, but also the trunk.
Old baobabs often develop hollows in the trunk. The dimensions of the hollow are sometimes so large that Africans build a garage in it for cars. The hollow trunks of baobab trees are used for temporary dwellings and storerooms, and in some cases they were specially adapted for water storage tanks. There are cases when the hollow (from time to time) trunk of a baobab was used as a prison, a bus stop or a place to sleep. In some countries, enterprising residents set up shops and pubs in this huge African tree.
In the mythology of many African peoples, the baobab personifies life, fertility and appears as the guardian of the earth.
An incredible baobab tree... its amazing appearance is striking in its disproportion: despite the fact that the baobab is a relatively short tree (only 18-25 m), it is considered one of the thickest trees in the world - on average the trunk circumference is 9-10 meters, but the Guinness Book of Records for 1991 talks about a baobab tree with a diameter of as much as 54.5 m! At the top, the trunk is divided into thick, almost horizontal branches, forming a large crown, up to 38 m in diameter. During the dry period, in winter, when the baobab sheds its leaves, it takes on the curious appearance of a tree growing with its roots upward.
An African legend says that the Creator planted a baobab tree in the Congo River valley, but the tree began to complain of dampness. Then the Creator transplanted it to the slope of the Moon Mountains, but even here the baobab was not happy. Angry at the tree's constant complaints, God tore it out and threw it onto dry African soil. Since then, the baobab has been growing upside down.
The origin of the name "baobab" is unknown. Some believe it comes from "bu hobab", the name used for the plant in the markets of Cairo. Or perhaps it was derived from "bu hibab", Arabic for "fruit with many seeds".
For centuries, much of what was known about baobabs was based solely on African baobabs (Digitata). The first mention of the baobab dates back to the 14th century, by the Arab traveler Ibn Batuta, a massive trunk filled with water. In 1661, the writer Flacourt praised the giants, speaking of Madagascar, he writes: "In this region, there is a tree called Anadzahé, which is monstrously colossal large. This tree is hollow inside, 12 feet in diameter, round and ends in an arch, like the one at the bottom." parts of the lamp. There are just a few small branches here and there at the top." 
What strange things do these medieval travelers tell: a huge hollow trunk filled with water...? Indeed, a mature African baobab tree is a natural water reservoir capable of holding over 100,000 liters of water! Loose, porous baobab wood is capable of absorbing water like a sponge during the rainy season, which explains the unusual thickness of these trees, and the collected liquid is protected from evaporation by a thick, up to 10 cm, grayish-brown bark, also loose and soft - it remains on it from a blow with a fist dent; however, its interior is held together by strong fibers.
The soft, water-saturated wood of baobabs is susceptible to fungal diseases, which is why the trunks of adult plants are usually hollow or hollow, rotted inside. The baobab tree also dies in a peculiar way: it seems to crumble and gradually settle, leaving behind only a pile of fiber. However, the vitality of the baobab tree is amazing. Unlike most other trees, the baobab does not die if its bark is torn off - it grows back. Nothing happens to the baobab even if it falls to the ground. As long as at least one root remains in contact with the soil, the tree continues to grow lying down.
The baobab is one of the oldest inhabitants of our planet: calculations carried out using radiocarbon dating (using C14) showed more than 5,500 years for a tree with a diameter of 4.5 m, although according to more conservative estimates, baobabs live “only” 1,000 years. The fact that scientists still cannot accurately determine the age of baobabs is explained by the fact that the lifespan of these giants cannot be calculated from the growth rings: they simply do not exist...
When talking about the baobab, many researchers often recall Saint-Exupery's famous fairy tale about the little prince, whose hero was constantly trying to save his tiny planet from the roots of the baobabs, due to the growth of which it cracked and disintegrated. The tale says nothing about how the prince maintained his existence. Meanwhile, as the same researchers note, he could well get everything he needs from the baobab tree.
He could brew coffee in the morning from roasted and crushed coffee seeds; They are also edible raw. Baobab fruits are pleasant to taste and rich in vitamin C and calcium. 
The dried shell of the fruit is dry and hard - it completely replaces a glass or vessel. The ashes of the burnt fruit, saturated with potash, make excellent soap. Extract from the powdered filling of a woman's fetus East Africa They wash their hair, and use the red juice contained in the roots to give the skin softness and shine.
Porous bark and wood are good for making paper, fabric, and twine. A tincture of baobab leaves treats fever, kidney disease, asthma, diarrhea, insect bites, and a paste containing powdered grains helps with toothache. The leaves are used to make soup, and the first sprouts of the baby baobab taste like asparagus. Flower pollen is suitable for making glue, and the smoke from the burnt filling of the fruit drives away annoying insects. At night, the prince could easily rest peacefully in a hollow baobab tree.
This is how baobab trees bloom.
The van Heerden couple came up with an original use for the hollow trunk of a baobab tree: they built a real bar in it! The tree that grew on their site was remarkable: 22 meters in height and 47 meters in girth. Among the baobabs of its species (Adansonia digitata), this one turned out to be the largest. 
In addition, radiocarbon dating showed that the baobab is 6 thousand years old. It is much older than the Egyptian pyramids! He saw stone age people. At the same time, the baopab can comfortably and spaciously accommodate 15 people. But if necessary, the company can be consolidated. “We once had 54 people walking at once,” says Heather van Heerden, “but I wouldn’t recommend repeating that experience.”
It would seem that it would not be barbaric to turn the oldest and largest tree on the planet into a bar? What else? It’s not for nothing that more than seven thousand people a year come to see it. But jealous conservationists can rest assured: this tree continues to grow safely, despite the drinking establishment operating intensively inside its trunk. Moreover, such use of the baobab is not an isolated case: describing his African expedition, the famous traveler David Livingston recalled how he saw 20-30 people sleeping sweetly inside a dried trunk, and no one bothered anyone. In Kenya, on the Nairobi-Mombasa highway, there is a baobab shelter, equipped with a door and a window. In Zimbabwe, a bus station was made from one tree, the “waiting room” of which can accommodate up to forty people. There is a baobab tree near Kasane in Botswana that was once used as a prison.
And one last thing. The trunk of a baobab tree can also be a reliable sarcophagus. This is exactly how poets and jesters used to be buried in Senegal, believing that they did not deserve earthly burial. But isn’t an almost immortal tree a worthy grave for a poet?
Information and photos taken from Wikipedia articles
The Baobab tree is an identifying sign of the African landscape and the national symbol of the state of Senegal. In Sudan, the tree is known as "Tabaldi" and its fruit is called "Gongaliz". There the fruit has been used for thousands of years as a healthy and nutritious food. But the Baobab is native to Madagascar, where six of its eight species grow. On the African continent, the most widespread of the baobab species is Adansonia digitata. This tree cannot be called fully “cultivated” - it grows wild in central and southern Africa, and until recently local villager they simply picked up fallen fruit to use for food or healing. There are many names for this tree, for example:
- bottle tree
- breadfruit monkey
- tartar sauce tree
- upside down tree
- and even a tree of a dead rat.
Last time I wrote about a tree impressive in its size and age -. On the other hemisphere there is an equally impressive analogue - the African baobab.
As you know, the Little Prince, the hero of everyone’s favorite literary work by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, fought every day with the sprouts of baobab trees so that, God forbid, they would not grow and tear the planet apart. Baobabs actually make such a terrifying impression with their gigantic size, incredible thickness and bizarre crown.
Regarding the unusual appearance There is even a legend about baobabs that says that one day some kind of dispute broke out between the baobab and the god, as a result of which the angry deity tore the tree out of the ground and stuck it back upside down with its roots. Thus, the baobabs acquired the glory of a tree growing with its roots upward.
Another feature of baobabs is their incredibly thick trunk, which can reach 4.5 meters in diameter. Due to their unusual growth process, baobabs do not have growth rings, making it difficult to calculate their age. But radiocarbon dating shows that baobabs live for thousands of years.
And this despite the fact that baobabs grow in extremely unfavorable conditions in Africa - here dry periods are replaced by periods of rain, so the trees either flood or dry out. Here the baobabs are subject to a massive invasion of microorganisms that destroy their bark and trunk, and whoever eats the leaves and fruits of the baobabs - from monkeys and bats to humans.
But baobabs are extremely tenacious trees - their bark quickly recovers, they are able to grow and bloom even with an almost rotten core of the trunk, and even a fallen or cut down baobab is able to take root again and practically rise from the dead. When a tree does die, it does not lie like a withered log for years, but simply crumbles into tiny fibers, leaving behind only a pile of withered wood. In my opinion, a very peculiar and noble death.
Baobabs are the most valuable tree in Africa. Not only do numerous local fauna feed on its fruits, flowers and leaves, but local residents have developed uses for almost all parts of the baobab tree. It is used for food, housing is built from it, mats and nets are woven from its fibers, medicines, glue, soap, dishes, mosquito repellent and much more are made from its bark.
Baobabs are also depicted on the coats of arms of several African countries.
The baobab is the national symbol of the island of Madagascar and is also featured on the coats of arms of Senegal and the Central African Republic. There are 10 species of baobabs in the world. This is a very amazing tree, interestingly, no one can accurately indicate the age of the tree. Since it does not have annual rings, these trees are long-lived and there are trees with an age of about a thousand years. Scientists say that these trees can live up to five thousand years. At first glance, you can understand that this is a very large tree with a respectable trunk size and height (the trunk is up to 11 meters wide, up to 25 meters high, and the crown spreads branches up to 40 meters in diameter).
Baobab is used as food, people use its reddish pulp, and monkeys (baboons) are very fond of baobab fruit. The tree is sometimes called the monkey breadfruit tree.
For most of the year, 9 months, the baobab tree stands with bare branches. That is why it is called a tree that grows with its roots up. In fact, the plant simply cares about preserving moisture, which is not so abundant in its natural habitats. Only during the rainy season can you drink your fill. What the baobab does very successfully: the tree is one huge sponge that is saturated with moisture. It does not evaporate due to the thick layer of bark - soft on the outside and strong and fibrous on the inside. There are claims that one mature tree can accumulate more than 100 thousand liters of water.
It is unknown whether the baobab reservoirs are so large, but the fact that it accumulates moisture is a fact. For this, some botanists want to expel it from the ranks of trees and propose to consider it a succulent plant, that is, they put it on the same level as some cacti or aloe. Another interesting feature associated with the accumulation of water is that as the moisture is consumed, the baobab tree changes in size. In the literal sense of the word, it begins to dry out and decrease in size.
From October to December, when our trees fall into winter torpor, the baobab enters the time of flowering and fruiting, becomes covered with leaves and enjoys life in every possible way. It has huge white flowers (up to 20 cm in diameter), which are pollinated not by anyone but by bats. And who else will do this at night - fragrant flowers baobab trees open for just one night, after which they fall off. The fruits of the tree match the giant trunk and flower - they resemble melons in color and size. They are edible. People eat their reddish flesh, but baboons eat the whole fruit. Because of the special attachment of baboons to these fruits, baobab is sometimes called the breadfruit tree of monkeys.
However, this tree is not only loved for its juicy fruits. There is not a single part of it that is not used by people. Fresh leaves are used in salads, and dried leaves are used as a seasoning for various dishes, from dried pulp fruits are used to prepare a soft drink, dried and ground seeds replace coffee, and nets, mats, ropes, and coarse fabrics are woven from the processed fibrous bark. The trunk itself can serve as a dwelling, a spacious storage room, and a container for water. Not only people and baboons value the baobab; they say that in difficult times an elephant can eat the entire tree - with bark, wood, branches...
A tree dies in a very environmentally friendly manner - it slowly sags and decomposes, eventually turning into a mountain of fiber. Amazing giant, except Madagascar, can be found throughout Africa, as well as in some areas of India and Australia.
Traveling through the lands of the Dark Continent, you can see unusual trees - standing with their roots up. Actually it is. It can be found not only in Africa, but also in Madagascar, Australia and India.
The bare branches of the baobab, like roots, are scattered over the smooth trunk nine months a year - that's why it got such a strange name -.
Among the African peoples there is a legend that says that when the Creator planted the baobab tree, it could not find suitable land for itself and moved from place to place. Angry, God pulled out the tree and planted it upside down so that it would remain in place.
The period when the baobab blooms and bears fruit lasts only three months - from October to December. Its flowers reach 20 cm in diameter, and they bloom for only one night. The fruits of the tree are edible and resemble melons in appearance. Baboons especially like them, and for this reason they are also called baobab breadfruit monkeys.
However, people use not only fruits. The leaves of the tree are added as a seasoning to food, the dried seeds are used instead of coffee, the dried ground fruits are diluted in water and served as a soft drink, reminiscent of “lemonade.” This gave the baobab another name - lemonade tree. The bark of the tree is used to make coarse cloth, ropes and fishing nets. The baobab is also known for its healing properties. A decoction of the leaves is used to treat coughs and asthma, and the bark is used to treat fever. According to the aborigines, ground baobab bark helps with malaria.
Baobab is an unusual tree, and it has quite a few unique features.
Unlike ordinary trees, the baobab tree does not have growth rings, and no one can say the exact age of the tree. But no one doubts that the baobab is a long-liver, given its size.
Speaking of sizes. This is the thickest tree in the world. With a tree height of 18-25 meters, the trunk circumference is on average 10 meters. The Guinness Book of Records mentions a baobab whose trunk diameter reached 54.5 meters. What a barrel has grown!
Huge hollows sometimes form in the tree trunk, which can be used as housing. In Zimbabwe there is a baobab tree that was converted into a bus station. This bus station accommodates about 40 people. In Botswana, a hollow tree was once used as a prison. And in Namibia they made a bathhouse in the trunk of a baobab tree. They even put a bathtub in there!
The natural conditions in which this fat man grows are quite arid. And such a giant as the baobab needs a lot of moisture. Therefore, during the rainy season, it absorbs into itself like a sponge. a large number of water. It is believed that one adult baobab can absorb about 100,000 liters of water. For this feature, some scientists want to cross out the baobab from the list of trees and add it to the succulents department, i.e. cacti and aloe. And the “giant sponge” changes the size of its trunk. As the accumulated moisture is consumed, it begins to “lose weight.”
There is another interesting feature - the baobab is one of the most tenacious plants in the world. If you tear off a piece of its bark, it grows back. And if the tree will fall- Nothing will happen to him either. As long as at least one root is in contact with the soil, the baobab will continue to grow, even lying on its side.
Due to its unique abilities, the baobab is considered the most revered tree in Africa. In the legends of African tribes, the baobab is a symbol of life and fertility, and is the guardian of the earth.
