Baobab - A fascinating Species

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The name was not very common to my ears neither was its look to my eyes. Ever since I saw them at the Aspire Park in Doha, I might has asked my Landscape Architect friend umpteen number of times to remind me of the name of this tree. He used to give me the name with the questions, “why, what happened?” I always wanted to know more about them.
I am told that we have a few of the species in some botanical gardens in India but incidentally never got to see one. “There are nine species of baobab in the world, and Madagascar, one of the world’s biodiversity hotspots, is home to six. The African mainland and the Arabian peninsula have two, and Australia has one. Africa’s most notable species is the Adansonia digitata, named after the French botanist Michel Adanson, who undertook an 18th-century exploration of Senegal. He stayed there for five years and contributed to the publication of 1757’s Natural History of Senegal.” theguardian.com)
The shape of the trees are fascinating but the most fascinating fact is that there are individual Baobab trees alive on the planet earth for the last 3000 years. Yes you have counted the zeros alright, its three thousands!
Isn’t it amazing for somebody to stand the sand of time and witness the continued changes happening over the millenniums? But they are not able to withstand our atrocities any longer. 
A recent article made the shocking disclosure that as many as 9 of these individuals aged between 1100 and 2500 years are dying off. Unfortunately our way of polluting environment and encroaching forest lands is killing them. Victims of Climate Change! The Guardian reported “The oldest tree by far, of which all the stems collapsed in 2010/11, was the Panke tree in Zimbabwe, estimated to have existed for 2,500 years. The biggest, dubbed Holboom, was from Namibia. It stood 30.2 metres (99 feet) tall and had a girth of 35.1 m.” (theguardian.com)
Do you not feel that it's about time that we change our way of life and give others a chance? 
Live and Let Live!

 

Comments

  1. Heramb SukhathankarJune 15, 2018 at 6:51 AM

    Wonderful post. An eye-opener indeed. We are always engrossed in praising a botanical garden in some distant land and fail to see and preserve those in vicinity. Thanks for the post.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. SumandebrayJune 15, 2018 at 1:09 PM

      Thanks for stopping by and your nice words. The botanical gardens are places where one can meet individuals who are hundreds of years old. But to meet someone who is more than 2000 years of age, one has to be lucky.

      Delete
  2. AnonymousSeptember 10, 2018 at 4:55 AM

    This blog was... how do you say it? Relevant!!
    Finally I've found something that helped me. Kudos!

    ReplyDelete

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