Baobab

Sowing: Baobab is direct-sown.

Siting: The tree needs full sun and tolerates climates where temperatures reach into the high 40s°C (over 104°F); it is hardy only to USDA zone 11, the tropical zone matching its native semi-arid savanna range. As a deciduous species it drops its leaves for much of the year and leafs out again during the hottest part of the season, just before the first rains arrive.

Mature baobabs are notably resilient: stripping bark from the lower trunk, unlike in most trees, does not kill them, since new bark regrows over the exposed wood, and the trees can also withstand burning. When a baobab does eventually die, it does not wither gradually but rots from the inside and collapses into a heap of fibres. In recent years, rising temperatures have been linked to the deaths of several of Africa's oldest and largest baobabs, apparently by weakening the trees and leaving them more vulnerable to drought, disease, fire and wind.

Fruit develops for up to six months after flowering, ripening during the late dry season or early wet season into a woody, gourd-like pod that holds a powdery pulp and many seeds. Young leaves are traditionally gathered at the start of the rainy season, and bark is stripped from the lower trunk when fibre is wanted.

Culinary: Across Africa nearly every part of the tree is eaten: fruit pulp is sucked fresh, soaked into a drink, made into jam, or roasted and ground into a coffee-like beverage; young leaves are boiled and eaten as a vegetable or dried as a condiment; seeds are eaten whole, roasted, or mixed with millet into a gruel; and in some regions the acidic pulp is used to curdle milk while bark and young roots are also eaten.

Fibre: The fibrous bark is pounded into rope, mats, baskets, cloth and paper, and pollen from the flowers can be worked into glue.

Medicinal: Various plant parts have long been used in traditional African medicine for hydration and as an antipyretic, antiparasitic, antitussive and sudorific, and in the treatment of diarrhea and dysentery; leaves have similarly featured in traditional remedies for complaints such as kidney and bladder disease, asthma and insect bites.

Ornamental: The tree is also grown and sold as an ornamental specimen for warm-climate and container landscapes.

Baobab is native to semi-arid continental Africa, ranging from the Senegal coast to northern South Africa and particularly abundant across the Sudano-Sahelian zone, with populations also found on the southern Arabian Peninsula. It was carried beyond this range to Madagascar, most likely by Arab traders, where it became a renowned feature of the landscape.