This was a major part of Disney’s Lion King (it is Rafiki the monkey’s house), Avatar (The place of Souls), Madagascar and the famous children’s novel The Little Prince!
This also is a prehistoric species which predates both mankind and the splitting of the continents over 200 million years ago! They can live for up to 5,000 years, reach up to 30 metres high and up to an enormous 50 metres in circumference!
They can provide shelter, food and water for animals and humans, which is why many savannah communities have made their homes!
This majestic species is an icon of the African continent and lies at the heart of many traditional African remedies and folklore!
In fact each and every part of this is used for one thing or the other!
Sometimes they are so big that people have lived inside!
It is a tree!
The Baobab Tree! and is also called Africa’s Iconic “Tree of Life”!
While many people know of the baobab tree, not many people know that it has a fruit – and even less know that this fruit is one of the most nutrient-dense foods in the world!
As mentioned above, every part of the baobab tree is valuable – the bark can be turned into rope and clothing, the seeds can be used to make cosmetic oils, the leaves are edible, the trunks can store water and the fruit is extraordinarily rich in nutrients and antioxidants. Women in Africa have turned to the baobab fruit as a natural source of health and beauty for centuries!
Baobab is the only fruit in the world that dries naturally on its branch. Instead of dropping and spoiling, it stays on the branch and bakes in the sun for 6 months – transforming its green velvety coating into a hard coconut-like shell! The pulp of the fruit dries out completely. This means the fruit simply needs to be harvested, deseeded and sieved to produce a delicious pure fruit powder!
Baobab trees grow in some of the driest, remotest and poorest parts of rural Africa. There is no such thing as a baobab plantation; every tree is community or family owned and wild-harvested.
An estimated 10 million households can provide baobab from the existing crop, that is so abundant it mainly goes to waste!
Mature trees have massive trunks that are bottle-shaped or cylindrical and tapered from bottom to top. The trunk is made of fibrous wood arranged in concentric rings, although rings are not always formed annually and so cannot be used to determine the age of individual trees. Tree diameter fluctuates with rainfall so it is thought that water may be stored in the trunk!
Naturally hollow or excavated trunks often serve as water reserves or temporary shelters and have even been used as prisons, burial sites, and stables! Imagine a tree prison! Now breaking out of that may need some Golmaal and being a Lion or Singham! Which reminds me of Birthday Celebrity Rohit Shetty who like the Baobab tree is rooted to the ground!!
Now Bark, I mean park yourself on your bed and sleep!
Good Night!
ramadocblog 