The scientific name for Baobab is Adansonia. The bulbous trunk of a baobab—a site of water storage—is usually more or less cylindrical. Native Africans often refer to the baobab as the monkey-bread-tree and have known about the health benefits of eating its fruit and leaves for centuries. In sub-Saharan Africa, you find baobabs rising above hot, dry scrublands and savannas. They are also considered to have many medicinal properties. No gift befits the food-obsessed people in your life like a cookbook. Baobab is the name of a fruit from the Adansonia genus of trees and it is found inside hard pods that hang upside-down from the trees. The Baobab Fruit is more than just a high antioxidant fruit. In some species it is more irregular, with folds that channel rain and dew. Ah, you're the curious type aren't you? Mixed with water, the powdery fruit pulp makes a refreshing drink. Our 100% Organic Limitless Baobab Fruit Powder is made without any exposure to heat. With a notable inventory of larger-sized stock, California Tropical Fruit Tree nursery is uniquely poised to provide mature trees, in quantity, that are already bearing substantial flowers and fruit. CITES lists one Madagascar baobab, A. grandidieri, on Appendix 2—species that are not currently threatened with extinction, but that may become so without trade controls. Baobab is a native fruit from an upside-down looking “tree of life”in Africa. Learn more about these incredible African trees that bear baobab fruit. A thick, bottle-like trunk rises to support spindly branches. Fruit and leaves of the tree are used medicinally for asthma, mosquito repellent, and for allergic skin conditions. Baobab Fruit is one of the most nutrient dense foods in the world. A short wet season and long, hot, dry season. Baobabs store water in their thick, fleshy trunk, making them the largest succulent plants in the world. Recent research suggests that baobab trunks are made of multiple stems that fuse together, around an empty space. The fruit dries into a powdery pulp that covers the bean-like seeds inside. The “Sunland Baobab”—an enormous tree in South Africa—became a tourist destination when landowners built a pub inside its hollow center. Most trees would shudder (if they could) at these conditions, but baobabs thrive. 203 likes. Add comma separated list of ingredients to exclude from recipe. Nicknamed the “tree of life,” baobabs play a key role in their ecosystem. The Sunland Baobab died in 2017. And to keep it that way, consumers should do their best to make sure any baobab they ingest is sourced ethically and in cooperation with local farmers who have historically tended to and benefitted from the plant. Fruits are large, egg-shaped capsules that (in some species) can be nearly 8 inches (20 centimeters) long. Only a few flowers are open at a time, encouraging pollinators to move from tree to tree and promoting cross fertilization. African baobabs A. digitata are some of the biggest and longest-lived flowering plants alive today. If you were to extract just the phytonutrients in the Baobab Fruit that gave it a 1,400 ORAC per gram, you would be missing out on a huge amount of nutrients. Some old baobabs tend to develop a hollow center. In Africa, monkeys and warthogs devour baobab fruit and seedpods, and weaver birds stitch their nests into a baobab’s huge branches. What is baobab and the baobab tree, Adansonia Digitata? Baobab is the fruit of Africa's 'Tree of Life’. The flowers range from red to yellow to white and have five petals. In the plant world, one of the weirder things is the Baobab tree, but, unlike your neighbor’s kid, the Baobab has a future, quite possibly in your yard. A 2012 study in Botswana Notes and Records also notes that human use of the tree has increased branch loss and the spread of rot fungi. and provide a sustainable lifeline for endangered species worldwide. Baobab is the exceptional superfruit of Africa's "Tree of Life". Creases and hollows provide homes for small reptiles, insects, and bats. Baobabs can regenerate bark that’s stripped by elephants, other browsing herbivores, or people. This massive baobab tree in Gonarezhou, Zimbabwe, was used by an infamous poacher to store ivory and rhino horn. It lists three of the Madagascar species as Endangered and the other three Madagascar species as Near Threatened. * California Gold Nutrition® Superfoods Organic Baobab Powder is sustainably, wild-sourced from Southern Africa. Still, if baobab cultivators can adjust the way they harvest bark, fruits, and roots from the trees, and if some of the trees can be allowed to recover from human-caused damage, then this archetypal giant might be able to flourish for centuries and millennia to come. In Australia—where they are known as boabs—they stand sentry in open savanna woodlands. Baobabs are deciduous, and during the dry season (which can last up to nine months), the bare branches of a baobab resemble a gnarled root system, and make these trees look as if they were pulled up by the roots and pushed back in upside down. In Madagascar, baobabs are important members of the dry deciduous forests in the western part of the island. Ecological threats aren’t the only ones that baobab trees face. The six Madagascan baobab species feature compact crowns and gray-brown to red trunks that taper from top to bottom or are bottle-shaped to cylindrical. Baobabs can be enormous. In Africa, people eat most parts of the baobab—including roots and small sprouts. These trees are drought-deciduous: they drop their leaves during the dry season, an adaptation for conserving water. Try shaking baobab powder into your orange juice or water bottle for an extra dose of vitamin C on-the-go! Leaf shape ranges among species from simple ovate leaves to palmate leaves with five to seven finger-like leaflets (in A. digitata). The only fruit in the world that dries on the branch. Baobab is usually consumed as a powder made from the harvested fruit that is dried and ground. The results are published in the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Baobab (bay-oh-bab), also called monkey bread or monkey tamarind, is a large fruit that looks a bit like a young coconut, although it doesn’t share the coconut’s hairiness. Unless a monkey or a person comes along to eat it, a seedpod hangs on a tree intact until it blows off in the wind. Baobab fruit, which tastes like cream of tartar, features lots of the popular antioxidant vitamin C (which may help prevent cancer and heart disease). Of the continent’s 13 largest baobabs, 9 have collapsed and died. Are you looking to carry our product in your store or super market? Sadly, baobab fruit may eventually become a thing of the past. They help keep soil conditions humid, promote nutrient recycling, and prevent soil erosion. The mineral calcium (which helps keep bones strong) is also abundant in Baobab fruit. Perfect, you will fit in well here at Limitless Good. In fact, a mature baobab tree creates its own ecosystem. With the tree’s fibrous bark, local people make mats, ropes, baskets, paper, cloth, nets, and fishing lines. A real thirst for knowledge! Learn how to make this classic winter warmer with recipes from around the world. It’s called monkey bread or monkey tamarind not only because various primates love it, but also because it mimics a tamarind tree, another tree which bears edible fruit in parts of Africa. Baobab Fruit. The IUCN has assessed six of the nine baobab species. All nine species inhabit low-lying, arid regions. The largest baobabs may have a girth (circumference) of 82 feet (25 meters) or more. Icons of the African savanna, the dry forests of Madagascar, and Australia’s Kimberley region, baobabs are trees like no other. Each one lasts for only about a day, but while in bloom, its plentiful supply of nectar attracts nocturnal pollinators, such as fruit bats, and moths and other insects. When eaten raw, the fruit is rather tasteless and powdery, according to the BBC. The results suggest that some of the largest, oldest baobabs may be more than 2,000 years old. More Magnesium Th… The fruit of the Baobab can be consumed fresh or dried into a nutritious powder that contains a variety of vitamins, minerals, phytosterols and soluble fiber such as pectin. Baobab (Adansonia digitata) is a tree native to certain tropical regions in Africa, including South Africa, Botswana, and Mozambique. If the Baobab Fruit did not have the ability to naturally dehydrate in the shell, it would be a great fruit for Africa, but that would be it. Feb 25, 2020 - Explore Taumkush's board "Baobab fruit" on Pinterest. For fans of nutrient-dense fruits and classic Disney movies, the good news is that the baobab tree is nowhere near extinct. The two African species and the Australian boab have not been assessed. Vitamin C contributes to normal e… According to other botanists, it’s the baobab’s ability to regenerate stripped bark that explains its unusual growth pattern. 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