Tree: Baobab (Adansonia digitata)

[Chappie]

A very good question FC

I know very little about baobabs other than they are very slow growing thus large specimens can be hundredes of years (or more?) old.

Imagine if these giants could talk, what stories they could recount!

[JenB]

This is a very old pic, before the era of digital cameras.
It still resembles one of my favorite Kruger moments.

[edie88]

Hello Forumites,

I would like to visit the central/northern part of the Park.
How far north do i have to drive to find Baobabs?

Thanks for your help
Edie from France

[wildflowergirl]

Hi Eddie. Welcome to the forums and welcome to our beautiful country!! The southernmost boabab is just below satara, and from there on north you'll find them pretty much everywhere.

[Imberbe]

But to view them at their most spectacular the Northern area around Pafuri is tops!

[hfglen]

If you plan your trip so that you enter or leave the Park through Pafuri, you can take a small detour to Sagole Spa, and see their Big Tree, which is the largest baobab I know -- a massive 47 metres around the base. Yes, it does cover the equivalent of half a rugby field.

Baobabs come into leaf and flower in November; flowering continues into December. (If that works for you, then you may wish to stay at Shimuwini and take a night drive to / past their big 'un. Baobabs flower mainly at night, and the white flowers against the black sky are spectacular.

[Chacma]

On my recent trip I saw several stately old Baobabs, but no young saplings.
I put this down to the elephant explosion and the destruction this is wreaking on the natural environment, after all we have all seen what damage an elephant can do to the trunk of a mature baobab, what chance does a sapling stand?

I did find a handful of youngish trees on top of a spiny ridge near Pafuri picnic spot.
They were obviously in a spot which elephants couldn't access.

I am used to seeing huge numbers of baobab saplings in the bush of Northern Australia, so the total absence of baobab saplings in KNP (except in camps) is quite disturbing to me.

Is the magnificent baobab headed for extinction in the wild?

[Ifubesi]

Very valid and interesting question Chacma.
I have done a lot of reading on African ecology and here is a summary of what I found with regards to baobabs:
It turns out that the question you are asking ("why do we never see any young baobabs?") is not only applicable to Kruger, but it is a question often asked in all game reserves around Africa with baobab populations.
Firstly, it seems that you can't judge a baobab's age according to its trunk diameter.
If it had a good start to life, it will have a larger trunk diameter when older, than other baobabs that may be older but had a harsh time growing up.
Therefore its difficult to determine the age structure of a local population of baobabs by looking at trunk diameter alone.
Secondly, all an organism has to do to keep a healthy population, is to balance number of births with number of deaths.
If you assess the fact that baobabs have very long life spans (over a thousand years), the logical implications are that it doesn't need to have a lot of offspring that become adults, in order to maintain its population number constant.
Recruitment of young plants are probably isolated events when the climate etc. are ideal.
Those circumstances may perhaps only occur once every few decades.
Baobabs work on a different timescale than us humans .
It must be said however, that the high elephant populations can have a detrimental effect on a species such as this due to the relatively low number of sexually productive individuals present in the ecosystem.
Then again, African savannas work on such large timescales that its difficult to judge what is "natural" and what is not...
Hopefully this clears up a few of your questions.
Perhaps some botanists or scientists can also comment?

[Penny]

At one stage some years ago iron railings were being put around baobabs that were being threatened.
Could this not be relooked at and a programme instituted to protect them from elephant.
As unsightly as these railings might be they would be a necessary evil if the tree were to be saved from destruction.
Some of these baobabs are actually grouped together on top of koppies - maybe an electric fence with a solar panel would deter elephants from gaining access to them.

There is no question in my mind that the trees that were fairly prolific north of the Letaba river, baobabs and others are definitely dwindling.

[Chacma]

Thank you all for your interest in this subject.
Interestingly, Grantmissy, we have had no contributions from KNP official sources or biologists, which could mean they either don't know or don't care.
I have the feeling that the Forum is better patronized by animal lovers than tree lovers!
Oh where is Piet van Wyk, who wrote my bible on the trees of the KNP?

I don't agree with you Ifubesi in your assertion that you only need one birth for every one death to sustain the population of a species.
It is a sound principle of survival of the fittest that you need many births for only the fittest to survive to go on to be a strong mature specimen.
I have also read the article
http://safari-ecology.blogspot.com.au/2 ... aobab.html
from which you quoted this incorrect assertion.
We should be seeing many baobab saplings growing around the vicinity of their parent plants where the soil and climatic conditions are most suitable, only to be thinned out over the years by animals, drought and other natural disasters.
But we don't.
And yet we know that the baobab seed germinates quite easily.
I am flying up to northern Australia next week and will post a photo of a typical baobab surrounded by its offspring.

Penny, much as I like your idea of protecting these trees, I very much doubt that this is in line with the current ideological stance of KNP officials, who are blowing up waterholes in the belief that these places, no matter how long they have been established, are causing an unnatural imbalance.
Some years back we noticed some trees (not baobabs) alongside the Timbavati road had been protected from damage by animals by packing sharp rocks, with their points sticking upwards, all around their bases. They must have been rare enough to need protection.
This was a far less visually intrusive method of protection than railings.

I would like to issue a challenge to members of the forum to post a photo of a baobab sapling from the KNP. Here's to hoping we will get a flood of responses!

[Imberbe]

Kruger does have a botanist on its staff. The person who heads up the Skukuza nursery is a fully qualified botanist.

I have seen a program in which it is stated that it is probably due to changed climatic circumstances which does not favour Boababs, which is causing the lack of small trees. If so, it is nature busy working.

[Chacma]

Or is it humans busy working, Imberbe? i.e. climate change?

It is indeed shocking to find that no research botanist is working in the Park.
The nursery person may be a botanist, but would probably only be doing horticultural work, not any form of survey or research on the plants growing wild.

This reinforces my suspicion that the KNP's vegetation has been given a back seat at the expense of the animals.
Is this because tourists are more interested in seeing animals than vegetation?
The vegetation is just that pesky stuff that blocks our view of the animals!

[kallis1786]

Some very interesting reading. Although I do not know much about Trees but I will agree that Baobabs have a huge lifespan and therefore I don't think it is a huge concern just yet and Nature normally does have a way

[Ifubesi]

Chacma: I don't agree with you Ifubesi in your assertion that you only need one birth for every one death to sustain the population of a species. It is a sound principle of survival of the fittest that you need many births for only the fittest to survive to go on to be a strong mature specimen.

If you read carefully I didn't say one birth for every death.
I meant one tree should become a sexually reproductive adult.
I am perfectly aware that you need many births in order for some to survive.
What I also said was that recruitment of saplings are probably isolated incidents which we may not be able to document in our insignificantly short lives.

I very much doubt that this is in line with the current ideological stance of KNP officials, who are blowing up waterholes in the belief that these places, no matter how long they have been established, are causing an unnatural imbalance.

They are "blowing up" waterholes to address precisely the concern you have:
To decrease the elephant impact on trees near these waterholes.
Seems as though we are always unhappy with whatever Sanparks do or don't do.

I have the feeling that the Forum is better patronised by animal lovers than tree lovers!

I can assure you that I for one am not a patronising animal lover!
I am also deeply concerned about the obvious decrease in large trees, especially Marula, Knobthorn and Baobab.
However I trust that current policies of closing artificial waterholes and bringing down trans-boundary fences are the only viable long-term solution to the problem.
I must however also agree with you that in the short term, trees may have to be protected by measures such as the packing of sharp rocks around their bases.
I really urge someone from scientific services in Kruger to get more involved in these discussions.
These are important queries that are raised and we as concerned Sanparks patrons would be more at ease if we knew exactly if and how some of these concerns are being addressed.

[threedogs]

Over much of sub-Saharan Africa and particularly in managed parks and reserves the issue of very low recruitment of baobabs has been the subject of quite a bit of research over the last couple of decades and possibly much earlier.
The impact of burgeoning elephant populations on recruitment is well documented and a common factor that comes up in most studies.
However all the other climatic and localised factors in each area have at times played a role in the dwindling population of baobabs including human impact, drought and flood to name a few of the issues that interact with elephant damage.
Unfortunately, some very good papers on this subject are only available to read if you are affiliated with a subscribing university or are prepared to pay for them. (one of my pet peeves)
If you do a google search on 'baobab recruitment' you will see some examples of work done and published including studies in KNP.