 Leafless in the dry season, adorned with bird's nests, a baobab towers over traffic in West Africa. It's practically impossible to convey with photos the immensity of these amazing and iconic West African trees - here shown one of several baobab species, Adansonia digitata. Everything from this towering tree is usable, fruits, leaves, the sap and the bark - everything except the wood! That's so useless it won't even burn properly - not even fit for a camp fire!  A small size Adansonia digitata baobab makes for big adventure for the young, bold climber. Small?!? Wild and crazy is the norm for the trunks of the Adansonia digitata baobab, seeming more a science-fiction creature than a tree at first glance, its dry pulp fruit more like freeze-dried space rations than a naturally-grown fresh fruit. As it grows slowly over the decades, the ever-expanding tree will hollow out inside, allowing for an interior airflow. Some interior hollows in the largest and oldest baobabs are spacious enough to shelter a group of people inside. But there's something more for the informed explorer to notice! Many baobab trunks have horizontal ridges. This is not a natural formation, but made by the hands of people. Not a true bark, but with attributes more like a skin, the outer covering can be cut away from the tree, pulled down and off, then separated into long strips and used for baskets, even woven hats and other useful clothing. What would be called girdling of a tree, which would kill any other tree with a true bark, doesn't bother the baobab - the outer covering simply heals over, leaving a set of scars. Click on the photos in the gallery below to display the larger views: For the adventurous cook looking to learn more: how baobabs are used in cuisine is explained colorfully and clearly at J'vois nice Africa! Once there, scroll down the page to find the baobab gallery displaying how baobab juice is made from the fruit, plus baobab dry powders - leaf and sap - are used for traditional West African millet couscous recipes.
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