Measuring Baobab girth

It feels a bit like when you mark off the height of your children on the doorpost, but every year in May Diana Mayne, a baobab colleague, and I visit Skelmwater Baobab research plot to do annual growth measurements. This research plot was started in 1931 to measure the annual diameter growth of baobabs. This year was the 83rd measurement and most of the trees got a bit wider due to the good rains, but some years if its very dry, the trees shrink. This little tree is the smallest tree on the plot.

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2016 Jun: World Desertification Day

2016 Jun: World Desertification Day

Baobabs live in savannah ecosystems many of which are threatened by desertification. Although baobabs have an incredible ability to survive dry conditions they too are affected by desertification. What can we do?

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New Harvesting Season

New Harvesting Season

This week we had our first collection workshop for the year. It was a beautiful crisp winter morning. When we headed out it was very early and the dew still hung on the baobab leaves. Everybody was in high spirits for the start of the collection season. Baobab fruit have started to ripen and drop off […]

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A smelly potion to protect Baobabs at Mapungubwe

A smelly potion to protect Baobabs at Mapungubwe

A new method to help protect Baobabs from elephant damage at Mapungubwe has been suggested, hold your breath, it contains fermented elephant dung! Mapungubwe is one of South Africa’s national parks in the far north, bordering onto Zimbabwe and Botswana along the Limpopo River, well-known for its many beautiful Baobab trees dotting the typical rocky […]

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