Baobab is truly amazing tree. It is considered not only the thickest tree in the world, but also the longest-lived. The baobab can live for more than 2000 years, and other scientists assure that it can live for more than 4 thousand years. However, it is not possible to verify this, because this tree does not have annual rings. The diameter of baobabs can reach 11 meters, and its height reaches 25 meters.
When it rains, the baobab stores water in its trunk, and even termites are unable to damage it, since its bark is thoroughly saturated with moisture, however, due to oversaturation with it, baobabs are susceptible to fungal diseases and often adult trees have a hollow or half-rotten trunk. During the rainy season, the tree can accumulate about 120 tons of water.
During periods of drought, despite the fact that water is stored, the baobab has to slow down its vital activity and during this time its leaves turn yellow and fall off. Then it looks very unusual, it may seem that the upper branches are roots, which is why the baobab is also called a tree with roots growing upward. Baobab is not afraid of sandstorms, since its roots go very deep into the ground.
This amazing tree begins to bloom only at night, and each flower lives only one night, despite the fact that flowering continues throughout the rainy season, from October to December. Baobab flowers are white and very large, which, as soon as they begin to open, have a pleasant smell, but after pollination they begin to emit an almost stench. And flowers are pollinated by none other than bats, which are called palm fruit bats. Mice flock to the pleasantly smelling buds and manage to pollinate all the flowering trees overnight.
On the same night, the flowers fall off, and only the fruits remain, which are black in color and very similar in shape to a cucumber. Baobab fruits can be eaten; both baboons and people eat them with pleasure. Their pulp contains black seeds and has a sour taste. A drink reminiscent of lemonade and even coffee is prepared from the same pulp. Baobab lemonade perfectly quenches thirst and enriches the body with vitamins B and C, and coffee is prepared by roasting the seeds.
Interestingly, if you tear off the bark from a baobab tree, it soon grows back, and the fallen tree continues to grow if at least one root remains in the soil. When a tree reaches a certain age, it stops growing and its trunk decreases in diameter. It is known that the oldest baobab on the planet, whose age is estimated at 6 thousand years.
It is also unusual for baobabs to die. They slowly settle until they crumble, leaving behind a mountain of fairly durable fiber.
Baobab is the most characteristic tree African savanna. It is famous for its unusual proportions. This amazing and mystical tree sometimes reaches 30 meters in height and more than 10 meters in width. Baobabs take a variety of shapes from jugs to teapots... Baobab wood is loose and contains a lot of water, which the plant stores for the dry season. The baobab tree can store as much as 120,000 liters of water to carry harsh conditions drought... 
An African legend says that the creator planted a baobab tree in the Congo River valley, but the tree began to complain of dampness. Then the creator transplanted it to the slope of the Moon Mountains, but even here the baobab was not happy. Angry at the constant complaints of the tree, God tore it out and threw it onto dry African soil. Since then, the baobab has been growing upside down.
Baobab - sacred tree in Africa And many myths and legends are associated with it... For example, if you give a baby a drink from a vessel made of baobab wood, he will become strong and powerful...
And if you dare to pick a Baobab flower, a lion will eat you... Well, if you drink the water in which the seeds of this tree were soaked, you will become invulnerable to a crocodile...
There are as many as 8 species of baobabs in the world. 
The wide trunk of the baobab at the top splits into many intricately curved branches. Small leaves its size does not correspond to the size of the tree. But it turns out that it is precisely these leaves that enable the tree to tolerate drought well. How smaller size leaves, so smaller area evaporation and more opportunities to retain moisture. During the dry season, trees usually shed their leaves. The baobab tree spends 9 months of the year without leaves. In general, the leaves are edible. 
Local residents have found use for almost any part of the baobab tree. From its bark a coarse, strong fiber is obtained, which is used to make fishing nets, ropes, mats and fabrics. Young leaves are added to salads, dry leaves are used as spices; in Nigeria they are used to make soup. The fruit pulp, which tastes like ginger and is rich in vitamins C and B, is dried and ground into powder; diluted in water, it gives a soft drink, slightly similar to “lemonade”, hence another name for the baobab - lemonade tree. Roasted seeds are used as a coffee substitute.
The fruits of baobabs are ovoid, thick-walled, tomentose-pubescent capsules; they contain many small black seeds distributed by animals. The seeds are embedded in white pulp, the sour taste of which attracts many animals, especially monkeys, which is why the baobab is also called monkey bread.
Baobab fruits, as scientists have found, are rich in vitamins C, B1, B2, they also contain large quantities contains calcium and antioxidants. At the same time, baobab is 6 times higher in vitamin C than oranges, and its calcium content is 2 times higher than in milk. 
At the beginning of the wet season, huge flowers (15-20 cm in diameter) bloom. They hang on long stalks like big snow globes with purple stamens. Each baobab flower lives only one night and withers at dawn. Feasting on the pollen and nectar of flowers, bats and lemurs pollinate them. At night, these animals mysteriously rustle the leaves on the tree. No wonder Africans believed that a spirit lives in every baobab flower.
After flowering, small fruits appear, which, growing, become the size of a zucchini.
In local medicine, the fruit pulp, juice, leaves and bark were used as remedies against various fevers and dysentery. Medicines similar to quinine are obtained from baobab bark. Baobab pulp powder improves immunity, lowers cholesterol, and reduces menstrual pain. Baobab is especially good for the skin - it not only improves its condition, but also nourishes the skin, relieves irritation and inflammatory processes and restores the epidermis in case of burns. 
Baobab is a delicacy for elephants. African giants eat them almost entirely, not only the leaves and branches, but also the trunk. 
Old baobabs often develop hollows in the trunk. The dimensions of the hollow are sometimes so large that Africans build a garage in it for passenger cars. The hollow trunks of baobab trees are used for temporary dwellings and storerooms, and in some cases they were specially adapted for water storage tanks. There are cases when the hollow (from time to time) trunk of a baobab was used as a prison, a bus stop or a place to sleep. In some countries, enterprising residents set up shops and pubs in this huge African tree. 
In the mythology of many African peoples, the baobab personifies life, fertility and appears as the guardian of the earth. 
Impressive baobab trees can surprise even a seasoned botanist. Where else could such an amazing creation of nature grow, if not in Africa, famous for its strange flora and fauna? These mighty trees They live a very long time and they have adapted to survive even in desert conditions. It is really very interesting to admire them.
Baobab (lat. Adansonia digitata)- a tree that grows in African savannas. The baobab is one of the thickest trees in the world - with an average height of 18-25 m, its trunk circumference is about 10 meters. The largest specimens of these tree species reach up to 40-50 meters in girth. According to various estimates, the lifespan of baobabs ranges from 1000 years to 5500 thousand years. Such a large difference is explained by the absence of annual rings, from which the age of the tree can be reliably calculated.
All parts of the baobab are currently very actively used by humans. 
The pulp of the baobab fruit has a huge nutritional value, contains wide range amino acids, vitamins, micro and macroelements, natural acids. Baobab leaves, seeds and fruits have medicinal properties. The fruit's high-quality dietary fiber is of particular value. Residents of the savannas call the baobab the “tree of life.”
Planet earth and its natural world have given us many useful and amazing representatives of flora and fauna, including the baobab. The unique properties of the baobab have caused last years a sharp increase in its popularity in Europe and the USA as a food ingredient and various dietary supplements.
Baobab
- a unique tree. Its huge trunk, swollen like a barrel, is capable of storing water during the rainy season. He is not afraid of anything, even sandstorms, since his huge roots are well anchored in the ground. During the dry season, its leaves turn yellow, the tree seems to shrink and suffer unfavorable time, slowing down your life activity. Even termites cannot damage baobab wood - it is saturated with moisture, like a sponge.
Baobabs bring great benefits to people. The leaves are eaten as a seasoning, ropes are woven from the bark, baskets and hammocks are woven, and the fruits are valued for their tasty pulp. Monkeys also love to eat baobab fruits.
Trunk The old baobab tree is full of niches in which birds take refuge, escaping from sandstorms or predators. If a fire occurs in the savannah, the baobab tree does not burn, since its wood is saturated with water, and can serve as a refuge for snakes and other small rodents.
Baobab wood has such a soft and porous structure that when infected with a fungus it collapses extremely quickly and forms huge voids. Meanwhile, this does not affect its existence in any way - a tree that is hollow from the inside is quite capable of existing for many more decades. The indigenous people of Africa have long adapted to use this hole to their advantage: they mainly store grain there, but there are also more interesting options.
For example, one cannot help but be surprised by the fact that in Zimbabwe they housed a real bus station in it, capable of accommodating two dozen people; in Limpopo - they set up a bar; in Botswana they planted a plant that in former times was used instead of a prison; and in Senegal poets were buried in them, since it was believed that they were not worthy of being buried in the ground.
Baobab belongs to the genus Adansonia of the Malvaceae family (sometimes it is classified as a member of the Bombaxaceae family, since there are no clear distinctions between these families). This tree is found only in the arid savannas of tropical Africa, in areas covered with herbaceous vegetation with occasional trees and shrubs. And then, only those who have adapted to survive in the dry season (the year in the African savannah consists of two periods - hot, rainy and hot, dry).
The baobab has acclimatized to local conditions quite in an unusual way: moisture and nutrients, which he absorbs into himself like a huge sponge, he is helped to maintain a wide trunk, often reaching ten meters in diameter (interesting fact: the widest tree described by botanists had a width of 54.5 m - and at one time was listed in the Book Guinness records).
It should be noted that with such a thickness, its height is small and ranges from 18 to 25 meters, only 2-3 times greater than its width - such compactness makes it possible for the plant not to die under the burning rays of the sun.
But the water in the tree is retained, not allowing it to evaporate, by the soft outside and strong inside bark, the thickness of which is 10 cm. Also, an important role in preserving moisture is played by the roots of the plant, which, spreading over the surface for more than tens of meters, collect all that is available to them. moisture. An interesting fact is that during the dry period, when the African baobab begins to use up its water supply, the plant decreases slightly in size and does this until the start of the rainy season, after which it begins to increase in volume again.
It is during the dry period that the baobab sheds its leaves and begins to resemble a tree with its roots sticking up. Africans are convinced that this happened because the plant angered God when it did not want to live where he intended it to live. He didn’t like it either in the Congo River valley (the baobab tree decided that it was extremely damp for him) or on the slope of the green mountain.
The plant angered the Creator so much that he pulled it out of the ground and stuck it upside down in the middle of the savannah. But this area harmful plant liked it - and it decided to stay here forever, becoming known by descriptions as a tree whose roots grow upward.
Having shed its leaves, the baobab begins to bloom (it does this from October to November) - round buds appear on the bare branches. At night they bloom and look like large, about twenty centimeters, flowers with five petals curved back white and dark red spherical stamens. It is interesting that the flower lives only one night, attracting palm fruit bats and bats with its aroma for pollination. After this, it withers, begins to emit a rotting smell and falls off.
And after some time, baobab fruits appear, oval or round shape with thick fluffy skin, containing tasty sour pulp with black seeds (interestingly, baboons really like this pulp, which is why Africans called this plant “monkey breadfruit”).
It has long been an established fact that baobab has soft, water-saturated wood, and is therefore susceptible to various fungi that corrode it from the inside - which is why the trunks of these trees are often either hollow or hollow.
Baobab is a tenacious plant, and therefore holes are not a reason for death. Although this still contributes to its gradual destruction: the tree begins to slowly settle - and, in the end, turns into a pile of fiber (although this process will take several decades, and even centuries).
The bark of this plant is also amazing; if you tear it off, it will not harm the tree, since pretty soon it will grow back.
An equally interesting fact is that if a baobab is cut down or knocked down by an elephant (these animals really like the juicy fibers of its core, and therefore they are able to completely eat it), and only one root remains from the root system, it will still try to take root and continue to grow, but already lying down.
Scientists could not really determine how long the baobab lives: this tree has no growth rings. Botanists are inclined to believe that this tree can live for about a thousand years. Using radiocarbon dating of one of the plants, it was possible to determine that its age exceeds 4.5 thousand years.
It is interesting that not only baboons and elephants benefit from this tree, but also the Africans who live in them use almost all parts of the tree instead of warehouses and use them in everyday life.
The bark of this plant is used to make coarse fiber, which is subsequently used to make durable fabric, bags, fishing nets, and ropes. Various medicines are made from the ash, which are used in the treatment of colds, dysentery, fever, asthma, heart disease, and they also relieve toothache and discomfort that occurs after bites from mosquitoes, flies and other insects.
Young shoots are used instead of boiled asparagus, from green leaves They make salads and use dry ones to make spices.
The pulp of the fruit tastes similar to ginger, so a drink reminiscent of lemonade is prepared from it - for this, the fruit is first dried, then ground into powder and diluted in water. But oil is obtained from the ash of the pulp, which is subsequently used to prepare food.
Baobab seeds are eaten both raw and roasted, and from the roasted grains, after crushing, they create a drink reminiscent of coffee.
Flower dust is used to prepare glue; Having dried the hard shell of the fruit, they make glasses from it; and when burning the dried pulp, smoke drives away insects, primarily mosquitoes. Africans also actively use this plant in cosmetology - powder made from the fruits of this tree, they wash their hair, make soap, and women use the red juice that the roots of the plant contain to paint their faces.
