The Baobab Click on one of the following topics to learn more about the biodiversity of Sri Lanka The Baobab Crocodiles The Golden Jackal Grey Francolin The Asian Elephant The Leopard The Sloth Bear The Dugong The Ass   1THE BAOBAB Adansonia digitata Introduction The Baobab (Adansonia digitata L.) belongs to the family Bombacaceae. It is unmistakable in the field, given its strange appearance and barrel-like enormous trunk, which tapers into branches. When the leaves are shed, the tree gives the impression that it had been planted upside down. According to an Arabian legend, the baobab’s strange appearance is due to the devil plucking up the tree, thrusting its branches into the earth, and leaving its roots in the air. It is a deciduous tree whose rounded crown is bare during the dry season. The large, dark, green leaves are like the fingers of the human hand, with 5 (seldom 7) oblong blades, hence the specific name, digitata. The flowers are pendulous, white, large and solitary. They are about 15 cm across when open at night and emit a scent attractive to bats which pollinate them. The sour scent also attracts certain flies and nocturnal moths. The large, white, oval fruits are provided with a dense coat of velvety hairs, and are gourd-shaped, spongy, acidic, and farinaceous. The fruit is edible and contains a pleasant, cool-tasting mucilaginous pulp in which seeds are buried, and each fruit hangs from a thick stalk. The seed coat is hard and drought resistant. The name baobab comes from the Arabic plant name Buhibab, while the generic name is after the French Botanist M. Adanson (1727-1806). The tree is more known for its girth than height: trunks attain a diameter of 9 m (30 ft) in some cases, and are hollow in the centre. The bark is rough and greyish, and since it resembles the hide of an elephant, the tree is popularly known in Sri Lanka as “aliya-gaha” by Sinhalese (aliya = elephant; gaha = tree), but Tamils refer to it as “Perukka”. Catholics in Mannar call baobab the “Judas Bag” given the 30 seeds its fruit contains. Monkeys love the fruit and hence the tree is sometimes known as the Monkey-bread tree.     Baobab Flower Baobab Fruit Of the eight species of baobab known to be extant, one occurs in Africa, and another in the northwest Australia’s remote Kimberley region, while six are found in Madagascar. Hence Madagascar is identified by some as the natal home of the baobab, but others consider it native to the savannas of tropical West Africa, where it thrives naturally in almost desert areas. The baobab is one of the longest-lived trees in the world. The French Botanist Adanson contended that some specimens of the baobab were as much as 5,000 years old. In Senegal (West Africa), it is reputed to live to an age of 5,000 years. A tree with circumference of 30 m could be more than 4,000 years old. Alexander von Humbolt called the baobab, “the oldest organic monument of our planet”. It is truly a wonder of nature. In Sri Lanka, the baobab has also been recorded from Jaffna in the past, and another from Puttalam in 1848 which was destroyed a few years later. At one time, there were at least 60 trees in Mannar and Jaffna. Today the baobab is one of the protected trees in Sri Lanka because of its rarity.   Manner Mannar (area: 117 sq. km) lies in the shallow sea known as the Palk Strait opposite the northwestern coast of Sri Lanka. It links Sri Lanka with southern India along a shallow sand bank known as the Adam’s Bridge. The name is derived from the Arab belief that Adam and Eve entered Sri Lanka through it. The coastal region of Mannar was once a great commercial emporium from where Cleopatra obtained her pearls. Today, Mannar is one of the bleakest places in Sri Lanka, with much of the land being sterile and repulsive, covered by a stunted growth of umbrella trees and buffalo thorns. The annual rainfall ranges between 890-1270 mm, most of which is precipitated in the northeast monsoon from December to February, followed by a long period of drought. Temperatures well over 300C have been recorded. Much of the island is covered with Palmyra ( Borassus flabellifer )  and Coconut (Cocos nucifera) palms. But the most striking tree in Mannar is the Baobab (Adansonia digitata), introduced by Arab traders many centuries ago.   Size of the baobabs The introduction of the baobab to Sri Lanka and India from Africa still remains a mystery. The hypothesis that it was the work of the Portuguese is untenable given the ages of the trees as indicated by their prodigious girths. The Portuguese first appeared in Sri Lanka some 500 years ago, but some of the baobabs in Mannar are more than 500 years old. All evidence points to the Arab traders who predated the Portuguese as the source of the baobab. These early mariners who brought the coffee-tree to Arabia, and the cinnamon to Malabar (India) must have introduced the baobab to Sri Lanka in the distant past. Its presence points to a remote occupation of the area by Arab traders from the Red Sea, who came probably attracted by the pearl and shank fisheries. Today the baobab occurs in significant number only in the island of Mannar, where it is a conspicuous member of the flora. The size of baobab on the basis of girth at breast height (GBH) ranges from 1.9 m to 19.4 m, with an average of 9.5 m. Unlike in Africa, where baobab trees are known to reach heights between 18-25 m, almost all the trees in Mannar are less than 9 m (30 ft) tall. The most abundant size class is 5-9.9 m which accounts for more than 50% of the trees.   Age of the baobabs In the past, since it was never established that the baobab produces annual rings, all estimates of the age of baobabs were considered mere guesswork. But today we know that the baobab produces annual rings and that the tree does increase in radius more slowly during the latter half of its life. The age of the baobabs in Mannar ranges between 101 and 723 years. The oldest tree at Palimunai is more than 700 years old. Almost 40% of the trees in Mannar are between the ages of 300-400 years. It is not clear whether some of these trees were deliberately planted by people or naturally propagated.   Importance of the baobab The baobab is regarded in Africa as a multipurpose tree with many uses. The trunk of the living tree being light and soft, it is often excavated to form houses by some Africans. In Zambia, a baobab was used as a dwelling and it even had a built-in toilet complete with water flush! In Australia, near the town of Derby was a baobab tree shaped like a gigantic bowl, which was so large that it was used as a prison to hold 12 prisoners. West Africans eat the fruits and seeds, while the pulp of the fruit makes a refreshing drink. Fruits are also used in local medicine to treat fevers, scurvy and stomach disorders. With age, the trunk becomes decayed and hollowed out in the centre, capable of storing rainwater, sometimes holding as much as 250 gallons. Africans have been known to use the large hollow within the tree as a storage place for the corpses of executed criminals In Mannar these hollow areas provide refuge to many poisonous snakes, but in the distant past, they were even used by leopards as hideouts from where they attacked dogs and goats.  As the wood is soft and spongy, it is of little value but the inner bark is fibrous and used in the manufacture of ropes that are known for their strength and durability. “As secure as an elephant bound with a baobab rope” is a familiar saying in Bengal. The baobab is a favourite among elephants in Africa; they eat the leaves, fruits, twigs, trunk, etc. Elephants also pierce the bark with their tusks during drought to tap the water the tree holds inside. The Adansonin in the bark is the active principle for treatment of malaria.   Conservation The baobab is not indigenous to Sri Lanka. Despite being an introduced exotic species, it is protected given its rarity and limited distribution. While it has almost disappeared from other areas where it once occurred, in Mannar it seems to take adversity in its stride and refuses to die. Although baobab seeds can germinate, not many young plants are seen. Dr Henry Trimen came to the conclusion that cattle could have eaten the saplings. Even today, given the large number of cattle, goats and donkeys that the island of Mannar supports, the vegetation is closely cropped, and it is likely that most of the young baobab plants would not survive under such grazing pressure. In the arid climate of Mannar, many plants in the underbrush have evolved spines and thorns to protect themselves from the browsers and grazers. It is probable that these plants may also act as protective nurseries for the baobabs. Therefore indiscriminate clearing of the scrub may expose the seedlings to even greater grazing pressure from cattle.  That the baobab still survives in Mannar is due to its status as a “zero-cost species” which does not compete with native species. In ancient times, the Arab traders who brought camels to Mannar fed the animals on the leaves of the baobab. A potential threat for the future may come from a rapid rise in the human population (through resettlement of refugees), the spread of settled agriculture, and the development of ill considered and over ambitious tourism facilities. The baobab has become a conspicuous component of the coastal biological diversity of Mannar and its ability to adapt to the harsh conditions prevalent in the island is in itself a justification for its conservation.   Reference to the above material from: ©  Rajnish Vandercone1, T.M. Sajithran2, S. Wijeyamohan2 and Charles Santiapillai1 (2003)  1 Department of Zoology, University of Peradeniya, Sri Lanka 2 Department of Biological Science, Vavuniya Campus of the University of Jaffna, Sri Lanka >> Back to the Main Page