African baobab

Adansonia digitata · The African baobab is a long-lived tree with a huge trunk that grows in the dry, hot savannas of sub-Saharan Africa.

Also called Baobab, Monkey-bread tree, Upside-down tree, Cream of tartar tree.

African baobab
Photo: Ferdinand Reus from Arnhem, Holland, CC BY-SA 2.0
African baobab
Photo: Yoky, CC BY-SA 3.0
African baobab
Photo: Diego Delso, CC BY-SA 4.0

Taxonomy

KingdomPlantae
PhylumTracheophyta
ClassMagnoliopsida
OrderMalvales
FamilyMalvaceae
GenusAdansonia
SpeciesAdansonia digitata

Where it lives

Dry savannas and scrub across sub-Saharan Africa, and the south of the Arabian Peninsula in Yemen and Oman.

Fun facts

  • The Panke baobab in Zimbabwe was about 2,450 years old when it died in 2011, making it the oldest flowering plant ever documented.
  • A large baobab can store as much as 136,400 liters of water in its trunk and branches to survive long droughts.
  • Baobab flowers open in the late afternoon and last only one night, smelling sweet at first and then turning brown and smelling like rotting meat.
  • Baobabs are mainly pollinated by fruit bats, and their seeds are spread by elephants and baboons.

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Facts and taxonomy adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0).