One of the best known and longest living trees of Africa, the baobab, the upside-down-tree, or in Latin, Adansonia digitata, is understandably a source of great lore and legend.
Most Beautiful Indeed
They say that in the days of creation, the gods decided to produce a magnificent tree, the baobab. Tossing its head and flicking its flowers about, it thought itself most beautiful indeed, and bragged incessantly to the other creatures.
Eventually, however, its constant vanity upset the Gods, who uprooted it and planted it upside down to teach it a lesson in humility.
The Upside Down Tree
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| |  Limpopo’s famous ‘upside-down tree’. | |
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When its leaves have fallen, the spreading branches of the baobab look like roots sticking into the air – as if planted upside down. They occur in hot dry woodland areas at low altitudes, and in South Africa, can be found mainly in Limpopo Province, which has snapped up the tree as one of its tourism icons.
The provincial authorities believe, like many, that few other trees quite embody the spirit of Africa like the baobab.
Tree of Life
The baobab is known as the ‘tree of life’ because of its variety of uses. The shelled fruit consists of a whitish powdery pulp that makes a tart, refreshing drink that contains six times more Vitamin C than oranges as well as other life-giving vitamins. Fibre from the bark is used to make rope, baskets, cloth, musical instruments, string and even hats.
Fresh baobab leaves provide an edible vegetable, not unlike spinach, which has a traditional medicinal use in the treatment of kidney and bladder disease, as well as asthma and insect bites.
An Abundant Ecosystem
The baobab consists of 80% moisture, and a single tree can hold up to 4 500 litres of water. They are used by humans and animals alike, and each tree is abuzz with life dependant on its ecosystem.
Elephants browse for leaves and strip the bark for food; baboons eat the fruit; birds nest in the holes; bats and bushbabies drink the nectar; and bees pollinate the flowers, which fall to the ground to feed various antelope species.
Tree of Legend
The flowers of the baobab are believed to be haunted by spirits as they only last 24 hours. And it is said in many parts that drinking water soaked in baobab seeds gives protection against crocodiles.
Whether that is strictly true or not, baobabs have saved many a life in the Kalahari desert, across which runs a line of these trees. Interspersed at 96-kilometre intervals, they have long provided water and shelter.
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| |  Baobabs are also called the tree of life. | |
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Bushveld Giants
Baobabs get old and big. The largest baobab in South Africa is a lone giant, near Sagole, a remote rural village in the north east of Limpopo Province. Measuring 43 metres in circumference, it is said to be well over 4 000 years old.
Halfway between Makhado (formerly Louis Trichardt) and Musina (formerly Messina) is the distinctive Halfway Baobab, which was once a reservoir of life for passing, thirsty travellers.
Near Musina is the must-see Baobab Reserve, where there are thousands on show. And the town’s main street must be the only baobab-lined avenue in the world!
The Baobab Bar
Many baobabs are hollow inside, and have been used as shops, storage houses, barns, bus shelters and even prisons. The Sunland Baobab, on a private farm near Modjadjiskloof, is a well-frequented tree as its naturally hollowed trunk has been turned into a pub. According to the owners of the property, it is 6 000-years-old.
At Leydsdorp, near Tzaneen, you can visit the old Baobab Bar. In the gold fever days, up to 30 parched prospectors used to gather round the tree at the end of a hard day in the sun baked veld. Here, they would ‘wet their dusty whistles with the tipple that an enterprising bootlegger dispensed from the tree’s hollow trunk’.
Just Gone
While stripping the bark from the lower trunk of most trees usually results in their dying, the amazing baobab simply regenerates new bark and continues to grow. This makes them hard to burn or kill.
But when they do die, they rot from the inside and suddenly collapse, leaving a heap of fibres. This accounts for the traditional belief that baobabs simply disappear.
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