Boabab Tree - The Tree of Life
Senegal Blog
Standing tall on the sunburnt African plains, baobab trees tower over the landscape like great living monuments. The colossal form of these trees is matched by their usefulness, for they provide shade, shelter, water and food for a wide variety of creatures. A leafless Baobab at Matesti shows off its taut, muscle-like branches.
Baobabs may be the oldest life forms on the African continent, and many of the specimens still standing today have certainly been around since the birth of Christ; others for far longer. Carbon-dating experiments in the Zambezi Valley have calculated that trees with a trunk diameter of five metres were over 1000 years of age, and similar experiments elsewhere have dated trees at over 3000 years. Girth measurements themselves are not reliable estimates of a particular tree's age, as the conditions under which it has grown - and the climatic fluctuations of the centuries - strongly affect this.
The Baobab Tree is also known as the tree of life, with good reason too. It is capable of providing shelter,clothing, food, and water for the animal as well as human inhabitants of the African Savannah regions. The cork-like bark or huge stem is fire resistant and is used for making cloth and rope. The leaves are used as condiments and medicines. The fruit, called "monkey bread", is rich in vitamin C and is eaten. The tree is capable of storing hundreds of litres of water, which is tapped in dry periods.[source?] Mature trees are frequently hollow, providing living space for numerous animals and humans alike.[source?] Trees are even used as bars, barns, wine and beer shops and more.[source?] Radio-carbon dating has measured that age of some Baobab trees at over 2,000 years old. For most of the year, the tree is leafless, and looks very much like it has its roots sticking up in the air.
Legends
There are numerous legends offering explanations of how the tree came to be stuffed in the ground upside down, so it could no longer complain. Some of the myths are:
The Bushmen believed that goings-on in the baobab so offended God that in his wrath he uprooted it and cast it back into the earth upside-down.
It is said that if you drink its delectable sap you’ll receive protection from the crafty crocodile; but don’t pluck its flowers, for whosoever does so will be torn apart by lions!
It is also claimed that on the day of creation, each animal was given a tree to plant and that the hyena planted the baobab upside-down and, as a result, it should never have grown. But grow it did, and today baobabs dot the Limpopo landscape, in Africa.
Day Trip from Dakar
Accrobaobab Adventure Park is the only park in the world built exclusively on baobabs.Located in the bush in the Senegalese sole baobab forest of our planet, this park welcomes you 5 to 77 years for unforgettable adventures safely.
Senegal Blog
Senegal Blog
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| Baoabab Tree - Senegal |
Baobabs may be the oldest life forms on the African continent, and many of the specimens still standing today have certainly been around since the birth of Christ; others for far longer. Carbon-dating experiments in the Zambezi Valley have calculated that trees with a trunk diameter of five metres were over 1000 years of age, and similar experiments elsewhere have dated trees at over 3000 years. Girth measurements themselves are not reliable estimates of a particular tree's age, as the conditions under which it has grown - and the climatic fluctuations of the centuries - strongly affect this.
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| Baobab Tree - Senegal |
Legends
There are numerous legends offering explanations of how the tree came to be stuffed in the ground upside down, so it could no longer complain. Some of the myths are:
The Bushmen believed that goings-on in the baobab so offended God that in his wrath he uprooted it and cast it back into the earth upside-down.
It is said that if you drink its delectable sap you’ll receive protection from the crafty crocodile; but don’t pluck its flowers, for whosoever does so will be torn apart by lions!
It is also claimed that on the day of creation, each animal was given a tree to plant and that the hyena planted the baobab upside-down and, as a result, it should never have grown. But grow it did, and today baobabs dot the Limpopo landscape, in Africa.
Day Trip from Dakar
 |
| Accrobaobab Adventure Senegal |
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