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Adansonia digitata

AuthorityF. Muell
FamilyMagnoliopsida:Dilleniidae:Malvales:Bombacaceae
SynonymsAdansonia baobab, Adansonia situla, Adansonia somalensis, Adansonia sphaerocarpa, Adansonia sulcata
Common namesAffenbrotbaum, African baobab, baobab, bottle tree, dead-rat tree, kremetart, moana, monkey-bread tree, mowana, muvhuyu, seboi, toeega, ximuwu
Editor
Ecocrop code2807



Notes
BRIEF DESCRIPTION A medium-sized, bulging, short trunked and bottle shaped deciduous tree usually not more than 20 m tall but trees up to 30 m have been recorded. The trunk is massive and can reach a diameter of nearly 7 m and a girth of 14-21 or even 37 m. The fruit is an oblong or subclavate indehiscent capsule, 25-35 cm x 10-16 cm. Flowers open at night and are pollinated by bats. USES The fruits is edible, it can be made into a beverage or used as food flavoring. The seed kernels are also edible and contain 12-15% oil. The young leaves are eaten as vegetable, a fiber from the inner bark is made into ropes, and the bark is beaten into cloth. The tree can be grown for shade. GROWING PERIOD Perennial. The leaves appear in the spring, flowers in early summer and the leaves are shed in the winter. It has a growing period of about 210 days per year. Some trees are said to live as long as 5000 years. COMMON NAMES Baobab, Bottle tree, Monkey-bread tree, African calabash, Ghelu zad, Rukhdo, Kalpav vruksh, Chormaru, Gorak imli, Gorak amla, Gorak ali, Gorakhamli, Goramlichora, Gorak chinch, Gonik-chintz, Paparapulia, Anaipuli, Anaipuliya-maram. FURTHER INF Scientific synonyms: A. baobab, A. situla, A. sphaerocarpa, A. sulcata, A. somalensis. Baobab is widespread in the drier parts of tropical Africa. In East Africa, the range of altitude is from sea level to about 1500 m. The tree is frequently found near excisting or former villages. It does not tolerate seasonally inundated depressions with heavy clay soils.
Sources
Grassland Index
Joshi H 1980a pp 1-2 [TEXT, DRA]
Roecklein J 1987 pp 475 [USE]
Duke J 1975 pp 5 [PH, RAIN, TEMP]
Purseglove J 1974 pp 33 [USE]
Maydell H 1986 pp 149-153 [RAIN, TEXT, DEP, DRA, USE]
Verheij E 1991 pp 313 [USE]