I often get asked how old baobabs become. There is a lot of myth with most people believing that they live for up to 5000 years. I have been working with Dr Adrian Patrut, who has made it his mission to find the oldest baobab in the world. He has been at this for about 10 years, sampling trees all […] Continue Reading
A new species of baobab, Adansonia kilima, has recently been described for Africa by Prof. Jack Pettigrew. This is significant because worldwide there are only eight species of baobab, six of them are in Madagascar, one is in Australia and one in Africa (Adansonia digitata). But what has always intrigued taxonomists is that the species that occur in Madagascar and […] Continue Reading
On my field trip a few weeks back we went into northern Venda which was very badly struck by the recent floods. Many roads were washed away and people's houses damaged. I came across this uprooted baobab. It was in a sandy area so when the floods washed around its roots it just toppled over! Notice the masses of adventitious […] Continue Reading
ISN'T IT AMAZING HOW THE BAOBAB BRINGS TOGETHER COMMUNITY – EVEN IN LONDON! The bright and bold London baobab tree rises almost 46 feet high on Southbank’s waterfront. Designed by the group of artists, engineers and designers in Pirate Technics, the tree was created to represent the nations of the world that took part in this summer’s London Olympics. Rows and […] Continue Reading