African Baobab

What does African Baobab look like?

The African baobab is a massive deciduous tree reaching 5 to 25 metres in height, featuring a broad, fluted trunk that can span 10 to 14 metres across. Its grey, smooth bark conceals soft interior tissue capable of holding enormous volumes of water. For about eight months during the dry season, the tree stands leafless. Its mature foliage consists of palmately divided leaves with five to seven finger-like leaflets. Suspended from long, drooping stems, the solitary blossoms are large and showy. Each bloom has five green, backward-curving calyx lobes lined with cream hairs and broad white petals that appear crumpled in bud. A prominent central column of hundreds of white stamens surrounds a sharply angled style.

Where does African Baobab come from?

This tree is native to the dry savannas and scrublands of sub-Saharan Africa, ranging between latitudes 16 degrees north and 26 degrees south, as well as parts of Yemen and Oman. The earliest surviving written account appears in the fourteenth-century travel notes of Ibn Batuta. In 1592, the botanist Alpino described Egyptian fruit specimens under the name Bahobab, likely derived from an Arabic phrase meaning many-seeded fruit. French botanist Michel Adanson observed living specimens in Senegal in 1749 and published detailed descriptions, prompting Carl Linnaeus to name the genus Adansonia in his honour.

When and how African Baobab blooms

African baobabs can bloom in both wet and dry periods. Rounded buds with pointed tips hang downward on stalks up to 90 centimetres long. The flowers unfurl late in the afternoon and remain receptive for only a single night. Freshly opened blossoms release a sweet fragrance, but within twenty-four hours they turn brown and give off a rotting odour. After pollination, the tree produces large, woody fruit containing hard kidney-shaped seeds embedded in beige pulp. Because the seeds possess tough protective coats, they experience prolonged dormancy and typically require wildfire heat or digestion by animals before they can take in moisture and sprout.

How African Baobab is used

Communities across Africa have long relied on the baobab for daily survival. The woody fruit contains a dry, crumbly pulp that is eaten as food and used in traditional health preparations. People and wildlife depend on the hollowed trunks and branches for shelter and as natural reservoirs, since a single tree can store more than 130,000 litres of water to survive severe dry spells. The thick fibrous bark can heal after severe stripping or damage, allowing human populations and animals to harvest materials without necessarily killing the tree.

Kinds of African Baobab

Adansonia digitata is the only tetraploid member of its genus, possessing double the chromosome count of other baobabs. Populations exhibit notable genetic and physical variations across different territories. For instance, trees in Angola yield elongated fruit rather than the typical rounded shapes found elsewhere. A mountain form previously named Adansonia kilima in eastern and southern Africa is now classified within A. digitata, though highland trees in Tanzania display distinct genetic traits that remain under scientific evaluation.

What African Baobab means

Baobabs hold deep cultural significance and feature widely in folklore and superstition. Their root-like, bare branches earned them the nickname upside-down tree, while the edible dry fruit inspired the name monkey-bread tree. Radiocarbon dating reveals extreme longevity made possible by rooting new stems. The Panke specimen in Zimbabwe survived roughly 2,450 years before collapsing in 2011, establishing it as the oldest documented flowering plant. Other celebrated ancient trees include the Dorslandboom in Namibia and the Glencoe baobab in South Africa.

Where African Baobab is used and seen

Jardin botanique de DeshaiesA 7-hectare botanical garden in Deshaies, Guadeloupe with global plant collectionsGardens by the BaySingapore’s waterfront gardens with giant Supertrees and world-class glasshouses

Questions people ask about African Baobab

Good reading and sources

• Encyclopaedia BritannicaArticle
• USDA Plants DatabaseUS Department of Agriculture, Article
• Plants of the World OnlineRoyal Botanic Gardens, Kew, Plant database
• Where it has been recordedGBIF, Plant database
• Sightings and photos by naturalistsiNaturalist, Plant database

• Adansonia digitata on WikipediaEncyclopedia
• More photos on Wikimedia CommonsPhotos
• Wikidata recordOpen data