As always in West Africa, people usually dress in vibrant colors, especially the women. It’s a beautiful sight to see. Around Boukombé, the markets are the most animated during the dry season. People are not otherwise occupied with agricultural labor, and harvests are in, so there is plenty to buy. The temperature that time of the year can be HOT…read […] Continue Reading
Polished and decorated baobab pods found in Germany! Seen at a stand selling exotic seeds, dried flowers and pods from around the world at the Kornelimunster Historische Jahrmarkt in Aachen. What a surprise!
In the 16 000 sq km of Makgadikgadi Pan (Botswana) lies an isolated dry granite rock island 10 metres high, forming a roughly 1km long crescent shape called Kubu Island. The entire island is a national monument, and is considered a sacred site by the indigenous people of the area. The almost white rocks (covered in fossilised guano) share space with gigantic fantastically shaped baobabs […] Continue Reading
it's on the New York Best Seller List and has been described as a "Beautiful and powerful work at the intersection of fine art, science, and philosophy, spanning seven continents and exploring issues of deep time, permanence and impermanence, and the interconnectedness of life, Rachel Sussman has written a wonderful book "The Oldest Living Things in The World" And of course […] Continue Reading
It feels a bit like when you mark off the height of your children on the doorpost, but every year in May Diana Mayne, a baobab colleague, and I visit Skelmwater Baobab research plot to do annual growth measurements. This research plot was started in 1931 to measure the annual diameter growth of baobabs. This year was the 83rd measurement and most […] Continue Reading
The area has had lovely late rains, but this has affected our normal fruit harvesting time. Normally all the fruit would have fallen to the ground by now and been picked up by our harvesters, but this year more than half of them are still on the trees. So we are waiting for the fruit to drop off the trees… […] Continue Reading
When baobabs are still young they are vulnerable to damage. This young baobab was damaged at the base, but it was helped to survive by coppicing (sprouting). After a few years most of the coppice shoots die but two or three remain leaving the tree to develop into a multistemed tree which you can clearly see in the photo of the adult […] Continue Reading
Find us out and about in June on the Magazine stands – featured in House & Leisure and Woman & Home!
I went to visit Blessing to see how her seedlings are getting on. Blessing’s seedlings are looking lovely. They were planted in Feburary this year just after a community training workshop on how to grow baobabs. Soon the seedlings will lose their leaves for the winter and look like sticks and then in the spring the baobablets will push out […] Continue Reading
A few years ago I was called by a local farmer to see some baobabs that were very ill and dying. There was a group of four baobabs, some of them were still standing and others had already collapsed in to a heap of fibre. This tree was still standing, but was hot and ‘sweaty’ with droplets on its bark, almost as […] Continue Reading