The Fab Baobab

(by Hannelie van As)

Learn all about these fascinating trees

We’ve always been fascinated by baobabs due to their shapes and size. In San folklore, the Great Spirit gave every animal a tree. Last in the line was Hyena, who got a baobab. This upset him so much that he pulled it out and the planted it upside down. It looked so strange that hyena couldn’t stop laughing.

The upside-down trees are some of the oldest companions. They can live to at least a 100 years.(Just imagine what the baobabs at Pafuri Rest Camp in Kruger National Park could tell you if they spoke ‘human’.) If you visit the northern parts of South Africa during October and November, you may see them flower.

Although the baobab pendulous flowers are delicate and white, they smell like rotten meat. They open at night, only a few flowers at a time, so that a tree can provide nectar to its main pollinator, fruits bats, for up to six weeks. A single tree produce about 400 flowers in bloom and, after only one night of glory, the petals and stamens fall to the ground, leaving the outer part of the flower to produce fruit.

To read the full story, get the December issue of the Getaway Magazine.