The Thickest Baobab Tree
In the vast expanses of African savannas, sturdy trees with exceptionally thick trunks and broad crowns – baobabs – stand solitary. This magnificent tree is one of the most revered.
Besides Equatorial Africa, the baobab can be found in Madagascar and northern Australia. In India and South America, another type of baobab, known as the palmate baobab, can be found.
Baobabs are usually not very tall, ranging from 12 to 18 meters, but the diameter of the tree does not correspond to its height, often measuring 8-10 meters.
The baobab is one of the long-living plants. However, determining the age of a baobab is very difficult, not only by the usual method (as the baobab does not have annual rings) but also by more modern radioisotope methods. (This age determination method is linked to the plants' ability to accumulate radioisotopes.)
One of the peculiar features of the baobab is that its trunk's circumference does not increase annually, as it does in other trees, but some years it even decreases. Forester G. Guy, who worked at the National Museum of Bulawayo in Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), measured the circumference of the same baobab annually from 1931 to 1966. Every year it changed but never exceeded the initial measurement. The forester explained this by saying that the tree contracts during droughts and expands during heavy rains.
The baobab is one of the most drought-resistant trees. Its roots spread out like snakes for hundreds of meters from the trunk. Damaged by humans or animals, the bark quickly regenerates. It is not afraid of forest fires either. Sometimes a wildfire completely burns out its core, but the tree continues to grow as if nothing happened.
Baobab wood is very soft and easily affected by fungi that destroy the trees from the inside, creating large cavities and hollows. Locals often use these hollows as rooms.
In Zambia, one baobab has been turned into a toilet with a toilet bowl and tank.
Some African tribes hang the bodies of the deceased, who do not deserve an honorable burial, in the hollows of baobabs. Inside the hollow, the bodies naturally mummify without any treatment or embalming. The famous traveler David Livingstone, who discovered Victoria Falls, wrote in his diaries about a giant baobab hollow that could comfortably accommodate 20-30 people.
If an opening is made at the top of a tree with a hollow, the thick, hollow trunk gradually fills with rainwater and heavy dew. The dense crowns of the baobab protect this natural reservoir from evaporation. Such living reservoirs are often used by locals during the dry season.
Under the crowns of baobabs, people often build homes and mausoleums for deceased chiefs.
When the savanna's nearly six-month dry period arrives, baobabs shed their leaves and stand bare until the rainy season begins. At the same time, as new leaves appear, they bloom. Their huge, solitary flowers, up to 20 centimeters in diameter, hang on long stems and live only one night. In the evening, the silky petals of the flower open, and as soon as the sun rises, they fade and wither. Bats, which are the pollinators, love the nectar of baobab flowers.
The large fruits of the baobab resemble huge cucumbers, 35-45 cm long and up to 15-17 cm thick. Their refreshing pulp, red and floury, tastes sour but pleasant.
Baobab fruits are rich in vitamin C and calcium, eagerly consumed by the local population. But monkeys, which live in the crowns in groups, especially love these tasty fruits. No wonder the baobab is also called the monkey bread tree in Africa.
Baobab seeds contain a lot of oil and are consumed after slight roasting. From roasted and ground seeds, a beverage reminiscent of coffee is made. Baobab fruits and seeds are used in folk medicine to treat dysentery and eye diseases, and the juice of the fruits is made into a drink that wonderfully quenches thirst and is also used in treating putrid fever. The dried shell of the fruit can completely replace a glass or vessel.
The ash from the burnt fruit makes excellent soap. Baobab flower pollen is suitable for making glue. Baobab leaves have the most diverse uses. An infusion of them treats fever. They are eaten fresh, used to make soup, and dried leaves are used as a seasoning for the national dish, couscous. Leaves are also used as a dough starter. They are believed to reduce sweating. In Senegal, crushed bark and leaves are used instead of pepper and salt.
Baobab bark and wood are used to make paper, fabrics, and strings for musical instruments.
The outer layer of bark is elastic, like a sponge, while the inner layer consists of strong fibers. Ropes made from them are so strong that in Senegal, there is a saying: "Helpless as an elephant tied with a baobab rope.”
The very soft wood of the baobab always retains a large supply of water, sometimes up to 120 liters in one tree, and the thick, spongy bark prevents excessive moisture evaporation. Despite its weak and fluffy wood, locals manage to make utensils and even boats from it.
The baobab is considered sacred by the inhabitants of the African savanna, and thus there is a custom where everyone must plant a baobab seed near their home.
