New Baobab Species – Fact or Theory?

Written by on April 18, 2013. Posted in BAOBAB TREES

A new species of baobab, Adansonia kilima, has recently been described for Africa by Prof. Jack Pettigrew.

This is significant because worldwide there are only eight species of baobab, six of them are in Madagascar, one is in Australia and one in Africa (Adansonia digitata). But what has always intrigued taxonomists is that the species that occur in Madagascar and Australia are diploid (having 2 chromosomes in a set) and the one in Africa is tetraploid (having 4 chromosomes in a set).

Taxonomists have said that the 'original' baobab must have been diploid and spurred by this Pettigrew felt that diploid trees must still exist in Africa. He ventured from Australia, where he lives, to the Kenyan highlands where he found a population of diploid trees. Since then he has found other populations of diploid trees and by chance it seems that this new species even occurs in our back yard in Limpopo. I headed out a few weeks ago to see the tree he described as the new species.

Dr. Sarah Venter

Continue reading....

Find more interesting articles below

Baobabs in the landscape

Baobabs in the landscape

Baobabs usually stand out in the landscape. But they can also blend… Photographer Vanessa Bristow captures this beautifully here.

Read more
Waiting for the baobab fruit to drop

Waiting for the baobab fruit to drop

The area has had lovely late rains, but this has affected our normal fruit harvesting time.  Normally all the fruit would have fallen to the ground by now and been picked up by our harvesters, but this year more than half of them are still on the trees.  So we are waiting for the fruit […]

Read more
It’s been a good year – baobab harvesters

It’s been a good year – baobab harvesters

The area where baobabs are found is usually very arid and the climate not easy to grow crops in.  Many of the harvesters with whom I work have fields around their villages where they do dry-land cropping for food and to supplement income.  Dry-land cropping means that there is no irrigated water to the fields […]

Read more