Baobab

When Martin was a wee lad at school, his teacher introduced him to a tree called the Baobab, an exotic tree from Africa, an exotic place.  This tree stuck in his mond and he always wondered what a real baobab tree looked like. Early on in this safari he asked Krusty if he could be shown a real baobab and was told yes.  Krusty couldn't promise leopards, but he could promise baobabs.  Maybe because they stay put in one place, day and night.

The native locals refer to the tree as the "Monkey god" tree, because it appeared as if the monkey god slammed the tree down into the earth top branches first, so that the roots were at the top.  It's a good theory (sorry Darwin and all the rest of the god-less theorists) and easy to see how it could have been arrived at.  The tree does look rather as if it is upside down.  Its latin name is Adansonia, and there are Adansonias native to Africa, to Madagascar, to Arabia and to Australia. 

The baobab is quite unique.  For one thing they are incredibly long-lived.  Long-lived as in thousands - not hundreds - but thousands of years old.   For one plant to have species native to both Africa and Australia it has to be old enough to have made that hop before the earth slowly split into multiple continents.  And that's a lot of years.  Yes, older than your grandfather!  And for another thing, they hold water, up to 120,000 litres!  Maybe that's why they live so long - they can repel the fires that other plants succumb to. The branches are generaly bare, which is why they look like roots instead.

When we got up close and personal, I found the bark to be on the soft-side, and looks a bit like cork.  When it does have leaves, they are used localy for condiments and medicines. There is a fruit also, called "monkey bread".  We tried a bit and all I can say is "it is edible"  Not tasty, but edible when you are in the savannah and need vitamin C (the fruit is loaded with vitamin C).

our first baobab sighting

we saw lots by the side of the road

note the scale!

Martin channeling his inner baobab