And wouldn’t that be a pity? Browse our famous packages for experience-based safaris, search for our current special offers and check out our camps & lodges for the best prices. A few weeks too early / late and a few kilometres off course and you could miss the greatest show on Earth. Travel in Africa is about knowing when and where to go, and with whom.
#AUSTRALIAN SOUTH AFRICAN SMALL PURPLE TREE HOW TO#
HOW TO GET THE MOST OUT OF AFRICA GEOGRAPHIC: To comment on this story: Login (or sign up) to our app here - it's a troll-free safe place 🙂. Prison ‘boab’ tree in Australia © Simon EspleyĪLSO READ: The Demise of the Baobabs – a Climate Change Warning? Many baobabs live to a ripe old age – with one recently collapsed Namibian tree known as “Grootboom” thought to be 1,275 years old. The massive trunks (the largest circumference on record is 47 metres) have been used as jails, post offices and bush pubs, amongst other creative uses.ĩ. Cream of tartar (a cooking ingredient) was initially produced from the acidic baobab seed pulp but is now mainly sourced as a by-product from the wine-making process. The tree is known locally as ‘Shadreck’s Office’ © Simon Espleyħ.
This massive baobab tree in Gonarezhou, Zimbabwe, was used by an infamous poacher to store ivory and rhino horn. The creased trunks and hollowed interiors also provide homes to countless reptiles, insects and bats. Animals like baboons and warthogs eat the seed pods weavers build their nests in the huge branches and barn owls, mottled spinetails, and ground-hornbills roost in the many hollows. Baobabs store large volumes of water in their trunks, so elephants, eland and other animals chew the bark during the dry seasons.ĥ. Humans utilise baobabs for many purposes, including shelter, ceremonies, food, medicine, fibre, juices and beer.Ħ. Baobabs are deciduous, and their bat-pollinated flowers bloom at night.Ĥ. The baobab’s biggest enemies are drought, waterlogging, lightning, elephants and black fungus.ģ. There are eight species of the baobab tree (genus Adansonia) – six from Madagascar and one each from mainland Africa and Australia.Ģ. So, do you love seeing baobabs while on safari as much as we do? Well, here we provide some interesting facts about your favourite African tree:ġ. They go by many names, including baobab, boab, boaboa, tabaldi, bottle tree, upside-down tree, monkey bread tree, and the dead-rat tree (from the appearance of the fruit).
It can grow to enormous sizes, and carbon dating indicates it may live to 3,000 years old. The baobab tree is a strange-looking tree that grows in low-lying areas on the African mainland, Madagascar and Australia.
In Zimbabwe, the roots are used to treat people who are believed to be possessed by evil spirits, for snakebite as well as for coughs when pounded with water and salt.Baobab tree in Australia, formerly used as a prison © Simon Espley The bark is used to make soap, fibre for fishing nets, baskets and strong threads that are used to sew bark cloth. The vhaVenda people mix the powdered root with mageu (maize or sorghum beverage) and it is given to a man to drink if he is sexually weak. It is also believed that many African people use the powdered violet tree roots as a sexual boost for men. In Limpopo, the vhaVenda people use roots for mental disorders and as protection against children's illness during breastfeeding. Powdered roots or wood scrapings are used to treat headache by rubbing them on the forehead, while infusions from the roots are used to wash tropical ulcers. Mixed roots of the violet tree and dwarf custard apple are used to treat gonorrhea. Toothache can also be relieved by chewing the roots. The roots and bark are taken orally either powdered or as infusions for treating chest complaints, headache, inflammation, abortion, ritual suicide, tuberculosis, infertility problems, venereal diseases and for constipation. The roots are extremely poisonous, smell like wintergreen oil and contain methyl salicylate which may partly indicate why they have a wide diversity of uses, such as arrow poison in some parts of Africa including West Africa. The violet tree is the most popular of all the traditional medicinal plants in South Africa and is used for almost every conceivable ailment.
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