Grandidier's baobab
Photograph courtesy
of Madagasikara Voakajy
WHAT A FUNNY
LOOKING TREE! WHERE IN THE WORLD ARE WE?
We are in western
Madagascar, the big island off the southeast coast of Africa.
The baobab tree in the picture is
Grandidier's baobab. It is named for Alfred Grandidier, the phenomenal French
explorer and naturalist who made the first detailed study of the animals,
plants, geology and people of Madagascar between 1865 and 1870.(1)
WHY DOES
THE BAOBAB TREE DESERVE THOSE KINDS OF COMPLIMENTARY NAMES?
The baobab tree can
be a source of water for thirsty humans and animals. The body of a baobab
tree is unlike that of most other trees. It is soft, fibrous and wet. Elephants
scratch the trunk of the tree to release water from the fibres.
Thirsty humans can
bore a hole into the baobab tree trunk, take out the soft, wet fibres and
squeeze water out of them. The hollowed out tree trunk then collects water
which humans can continue to use. Sometimes the centre of the tree dies naturally
and a useable water reservoir is formed. Baobab trees are known to store up
to 1000 gallons of drinkable water. (2)
It is possible for
a baobab tree to live for thousands of years. For the people who live near
it, the tree becomes part of religion and tradition because it has been there
forever, through all human memory. The
native people of Madagascar call the tree "renala"
which means "mother of the forest".
(3)
In Madagascar, Grandidier's
baobab is believed to be the dwelling place of spirits. Offerings are left
at the base of the tree. Rum is poured into big land snail shells to ensure
fertility and answers to prayers. Food is left to ensure a good harvest. Money
is left to ensure future good fortune.(4)
Gambian epauletted
fruit bat and baobab flower
I THOUGHT
THIS WAS GOING TO BE ABOUT BATS AND BAOBAB TREES. WHEN DO WE GET TO THE BATS?
Right now. There
are eight species of baobab trees in the world. One grows in Australia, one
in Africa, and six grow only in Madagascar. The African baobab grows there
also, but it is thought to have been introduced.(3)
On the continent
of Africa the baobab tree, Adansonia digitata, has a big, white, fragrant, night-blooming
flowers which are pollinated by four kinds of epauletted fruit bats and a
rousette bat.(5)
Photograph of fruiting Adansonia digitata, Tanzania
Courtesy of Sandra Worthington
Two of the six native
baobab trees on Madagascar, Grandidier's baobab and the "bozy" baobab
(A. suarensis) have big flowers which are pollinated by bats, moths and lemurs.(3)
The pollinating bat
is the Madagascar fruit bat, a very close relative of continental Africa's
straw-coloured fruit bat. The other four native baobab trees on Madagascar
have different kinds of flowers which are adapted for pollination by insects.(3)
Madagascar
fruit bat (Eidolon dupreanum)
Photograph
courtesy of Lamin'asa Fiarovana Ramanavy (Bat
Conservation Madagascar
On the
continent of Africa another bat, the heart-nosed bat, roosts in the baobab
tree. That bat is not a flower pollinator. It eats mostly large beetles, sometimes
centipedes and scorpions and occasionally other small bats. Eighty African
heart-nosed bats have been found roosting in a baobab tree.(6)
THE BAOBAB
TREE IS A SOURCE OF WATER AND A DWELLING PLACE FOR SPIRITS. ANY OTHER VIRTUES?
A great many, too
many to list here.(2)
- Fruit
for food
- Oil from
the seeds
- Drink
from the fruit pulp and seeds
- Rope,
cordage and cloth from the bark fibre
- Substitute
for the medicine, quinine, from the bark and leaves
- Powdered
rising agent for baking from the fruit
- Tannin,
for curing leather, from the tree bark
- Glue from
the pollen of the flowers
- Pulp for
making paper from the harvested tree (low quality)
The list above is only a miniscule
fraction of the uses known for the baobab tree, its flowers, fruit, leaves,
bark, roots and body. You can scroll through thousands of uses by searching
for Adansonia digitata on the SEPASAL database. http://www.rbgkew.org.uk/ceb/sepasal
SEPSAL is a database
within the Kew Gardens website. It is an invaluable source of information about
plants of economic value that grow in arid and semi-arid lands and was set up
in 1982 by an eminent botanist, Gerald E. Wickens, who was at that time a director
at Kew Gardens. For additional fascinating information about the baobab tree,
Adansonia digitata, and its uses, visit http://www.baobabfruitco.com/Eng/TheBaobabTree.htm
and read two articles by Gerald E. Wickens; The Baobab, a Caliban of a tree
and The Uses of the baobab (Adansonia digitata I.) in Africa.
HOW COULD
ANYONE DARE TO CUT DOWN A BAOBAB TREE TO MAKE POOR QUALITY PAPER?
The logging of all
kinds of trees has occurred on Madagascar for a long time. There is severe
deforestation on the island, and it is continuing.
Some baobab trees
escape being cut because of their spiritual significance. Now, instead of
being in a mixed forest, the baobab trees stand alone.
The isolation of
baobab trees may have greatly increased the responsibility of the Madagascar
fruit bat for ensuring survival of two endangered baobab species, Grandidier's
baobab and "bozy", A. suarensis, which are bat and lemur pollinated.(3)
This summer, 2005,
scientists on Madagascar will be tracking the Madagascar fruit bat to try
to learn more about the frequency of its visits to the two kinds of baobabs
that are known to be bat-pollinated, Grandidier's baobab and the "bozy"
baobab. (3)
Lemurs, who live
only on Madagascar and two of the neighbouring Comoros Islands, travel between
tree tops to feed on leaves, fruit, nectar and pollen. No longer can they
easily visit the two baobab species they pollinate. The trunk of the Grandidier's
baobab is too slick for them to climb, even if they were inclined make the
land journey between trees. Of the some 31 species of lemurs, only one species,
the ring-tailed lemur, is known to travel for any distance on the ground.(7)
Naturally,
the ongoing deforestation of Madagascar is threatening the lives of the lemurs
and many other kinds of plants and animals that depend on a forest habitat.
For example, the rosy periwinkle grows wild only in the forests of Madagascar.
A medicine from the rosy periwinkle has increased the chance of surviving
childhood leukemia from 10 percent to 95 percent. The rosy periwinkle is naturalized
now, but it is important that the wild plant survive as a genetic resource.(8)
The
Madagascar fruit bat faces a different threat. It is a desirable main dish
on the dinner table and may become extinct from overhunting.(9)
Baobab trees are home
for birds, insects, snakes and mammals. The baobab trees that have vastly
swollen trunks, such as Adansonia digitata, the continental African species,
can also accommodate human beings. You can drink beer inside a baobab tree
trunk pub, live inside a baobab tree trunk house, wait for a bus in a baobab
tree trunk shelter or serve time inside a baobab tree trunk jail.(2)
References:
(1)Wikipedia, Wikispecies,
free species directory; http://species.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_Grandidier
(2)Royal Botanic
Gardens, Kew (1999). Survey of Economic Plants for Arid and SemiArid Lands
(SEPASAL)database. Published on the Internet;http://www.rbgkew.org.uk/ceb/sepasal
[accessed 5 March 2006 1000 hours]
(3)Personal communication,
Dr. Richard K.B.Jenkins, Bat Conservation Madagascar, Antananarivo, Madagascar
(4)How many Baobab
species do we have?;http://www.buzau.com/baobab/taxon.htm
(5)Fujita, M.S. 1991.
Flying Fox (Chiroptera:Pteropodidae) Pollination, Seed Dispersal, and Economic
Importance: A Tabular Summary of Current Knowledge, Resource Publication No.
2, Bat Conservation International
(6)Altringham,John D.,
Bats, Biology and Behaviour,Oxford University Press, 1998, page 161
(7)Ring-tailed Lemur,
Card 60, Wildlife Explorer, IMP BV/International Masters Publishers Ltd
(8)Cancer cured by the
rosy periwinkle; http://www.livingrainforest.org/about/economies/rosyperiwinkle
(9)Racey, Paul A.,The
Role of Fruit Bats in Maintaining Biodiversity in Malagasy Forests, Abstract
of Presentation at the 9th European Bat Research Conference, August 26-30,
2002, Le Havre, France, Bat Research News, Volume 43:No.3, Fall 2002, page
103
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THE PLANT
- Order: Malvales
- Family: Bombaceae (Baobab, Durian and Balsa Trees
- Genus: Adansonia
- Species: There are eight Adansonia species;A. digitata (Africa),
A. gibbosa (Australia), A. grandidieri, A. suarensis, A. perrieri,
A. rubrostipa, A. madagascariensis, A. za (Madagascar)s
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THE BATS*
- Gambian epauletted fruit bat (Epomophorus gambianus)
- Peter's dwarf epauletted bat (Micropteropus pusillus)
- Veldkamp's dwarf fruit bat (Nanonycteris veldkampi)
- Wahlberg's epauletted bat (Epomophorus wahlbergi)
- Leschenault's rousette bat (Rousettus leschenaulti)
- Madagascar fruit bat (Eidolon dupreanum)
Fujita, M.S. 1991. Flying Fox (Chiroptera:Pteropodidae)
Pollination, Seed Dispersal, and Economic Importance: A Tabular Summary
of Current Knowledge, Resource Publication No. 2, Bat Conservation International
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Text and illustrations by Mary Louise
Alley-Crosby, who thanks Madagasikara Voakajy and Lamin'asa Fiarovana Ramanavy
of Madagascar for permission to use their photographs, Sandra Worthington
for the photograph of Adansonia digitata with fruit and Dr. Merlin D. Tuttle,
Founder and President, Bat Conservation International, Austin, Texas, for
permission to use his photograph as a guide to drawing the Gambian epauletted
bat.
Peter's dwarf
epauletted bat
4 June 2006
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