B is for Baobab

Baobab tree in Bulawayo, photo by ironmanixs (Richard IJzermans), on flickr,
available under a CC-BY-NC-SA 2.0 license.

Have I told you I love trees? Oh, yes, I wrote that on my profile.

The Baobab is a truly magnificent tree! It's shape is quite surreal.

You may have seen this grotesque-looking tree, sometimes called the Cream of Tartar tree on a safari (if you're lucky) or in photos like the beautiful one above. 

It can grow to 70 feet (23m) and have a trunk diametre of more than 24 feet (8m)! Its bark is smooth, shiny, heavily folded and pinkish grey or coppery in colour. The single, large, whitish flowers appear from April to August.

In Zimbabwe, the Baobab grows in hot, dry areas below 3,000 feet (1,000m) in the Limpopo, Sabi and Zambesi River valleys. It is amazingly resilient - it can survive even when the inside is burnt by veld fires or all of the bark is stripped off.

Many parts of the tree can be put to good use:

• the bark - by pounding it, a fibre can be obtained for the production of rope and floor mats; 
• the white powder from around the seedlings can be used to make a kind of porridge or a refreshing drink, sometimes used to treat fever and dysentery; 
• the seeds, which have a slightly acidic and refreshing taste, can be sucked like sweets or they can be roasted and ground to make a coffee substitute;
• the pollen makes good glue;
• the fresh leaves can be boiled and used as vegetables or dried and used for cattle feed.

The information above and the picture below were taken from the only colouring book that has survived from my childhood. It's a lovely book because it is so informative and the pictures are great.

From the NRB colouring book -TREES AND SHRUBS

When I was 10, I remember reading and rereading a book by Enid Blyton called Hollow Tree House and thinking how cool it was that the characters Susan and Peter lived in a hollow tree, which could only mean a Baobab!

The Baobab is definitely on my shortlist of favourite trees, even though the Flamboyant is still my number one.

Do you have a favourite tree?

Edited to add:

Here is a fantastic post about the Baobab from de Wets Wild blog that you will enjoy!