Baobab Trees

I first heard of baobab trees in Rudyard Kipling’s Just So Stories (along with the green, greasy Limpopo River, which is a name I’ve always liked).   when I was a young child.  On the way to see the Great Zimbabwe, we passed through an area that had quite a few, and I really enjoyed seeing them.  They’re pretty large, and unusual in that they have very fat trunks.  (The ones we saw weren't nearly as large and fat as they can get.)  These trunks hold an amazing amount of water—I read in my favorite scientific annals, Wikipedia, that a large one can hold 32,000 gallons!  This is very adaptive in times of drought.  As the trunks get bigger, a hollow is formed in the middle, which can become home for animals or even a person.  The baobab doesn't live as long as the oldest bristlecone pines, but a few specimens have been dated at close to 2000 years old.  The baobab is sometimes called the upside down tree because for most of the year it doesn’t have leaves (more water conservation, I’ll bet), so the empty branches and twigs kind of look like a root system.  We were lucky--at this time of year, the trees have leaves.

Baobab tree in its natural state

The first few baobabs we saw were in their natural state, but then we saw quite a few that had had their bark stripped off in large rectangular patches.  We stopped so I could take a photo of one.

Baobab tree with bark trimmed

We were wondering why anyone would strip the bark, but within a couple of miles it was evident, because there were a lot of rugs and mats for sale along the edge of the road.  I later found out that the fiber of the bark is naturally fire resistant, so it makes good mats and rope.  Here’s a photo of some of the mats. 

Baobab rugs