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17-AUG-2007

Raw00441 Broome boab.jpg

Baobab is the common name of a genus (Adansonia) containing eight species of trees, native to Madagascar (the centre of diversity, with six species), mainland Africa and Australia (one species in each). The mainland African species also occurs on Madagascar, but it is not a native of that country. Other common names include boab, boaboa, bottle tree and monkey bread tree. The species reach heights of between 5–25 m, 10-80ft (exceptionally 30 m, 100ft) tall, and up to 7 m, 23ft (exceptionally 11 m, 36ft) in trunk diameter. They are noted for storing water inside the swollen trunk, with the capacity to store up to 120,000 litres, 32,000 US gallons, of water to endure the harsh drought conditions particular to each region.[1] All occur in seasonally arid areas, and are deciduous, shedding their leaves during the dry season. Some are reputed to be many thousands of years old, though as the wood does not produce annual growth rings, this is impossible to verify; few botanists give any credence to these claims of extreme age, with current evidence suggesting they rarely exceed 400 years old.[2]

The Malagasy species are important components of the Madagascar dry deciduous forests. Within that biome, A. madagascariensis and A. rubrostipa occur specifically in the Anjajavy Forest, sometimes growing out of the tsingy limestone itself.

From Wikipedia. more info at; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baobab

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