{"id":2533,"date":"2017-10-29T00:14:24","date_gmt":"2017-10-28T22:14:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/baobabstories.com\/en\/?p=2533"},"modified":"2017-12-04T19:04:10","modified_gmt":"2017-12-04T18:04:10","slug":"baobabs-do-as-they-please","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/baobabstories.com\/en\/baobabs-do-as-they-please\/","title":{"rendered":"Baobabs do as they please"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cBaobabs have not read the book of trees \u2013 they write their own book. They don\u2019t conform to any of the norms. To me they are like people: they grow straight up and tall for a long time and then they get fat. They are all individuals. If you go up to the North you can see it well because some of them are tall and some short, some are fat and squat and all are different in shape and size. Not one resembles another one.\u201d (Michele Hofmeyr)
\n<\/em><\/p>\n

\"Michele<\/a>

Michele Hofmeyr, Kruger NP, South Africa<\/p><\/div>\n

Some years ago I visited the Kruger National Park in South Africa. I came across beautiful baobabs in the Northern parts of the park. While I travelled in the park I went to the Skukuza Research Camp to find out more about the baobab population there. I was referred to Michele Hofmeyr who is a botanist and worked for the Kruger Nursery at that time.<\/p>\n

During our conversation it became obvious quickly that Michele loves the giants, too: “I have always had a fascination with baobabs. After I had finished my studies I went to Madagascar to see the baobabs there,” she said during one of our meetings.<\/p>\n

\"Baobabs<\/a>

Baobabs in Planting Bags, Kruger NP, South Africa<\/p><\/div>\n

We met several times to catch up on news about the trees since then. “I have always grown them” she says and shows me the ones that sit in their planting bags in the Kruger Nursery and at her home \u2013 ready and eager to be planted. \u201cMany people say they are hard to grow \u2013 but it is actually easy. They just take time\u201d and she continues \u201cafter soaking the seeds in water to simulate a rainfall event you put them on a bed of soil and cover them with river sand. Sometimes it takes up to 12 months for them to germinate.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Baobab,<\/a>

Baobab, Kruger Nursery, Kruger NP, South Africa<\/p><\/div>\n

The seeds have the ability to lie dormant for a long time. \u201cIf you plant baobab in a bed in one year and you plant something else the following year those that did not germinate will do so the next year \u2013 as soon as you disturb the soil\u201d.\u00a0 It was the \u201ctree of the year\u201d in South Africa in 2006. Michele planted more than 10.000 seeds and sold the little trees in the nursery.<\/p>\n

\"Baobab,<\/a>

Baobab, Kruger Nursery, Kruger NP, South Africa<\/p><\/div>\n

Depending on where the baobabs grow they have to be protected from baboons since they are very palatable. Once the saplings are about 30 cm high they have a little tuber root the monkeys love to tear out and eat. The rest of the little tree gets thrown away and wastes.<\/p>\n

Those seeds germinating early in the season in November or December \u2013 the onset of the rainy season in the North of South Africa \u2013 have plenty of time to grow and put down reserves before the next dry season starts. Therefore they are stronger and stand a better chance to survive than those germinating in March or April which is fall in the southern hemisphere. At this time of the year they lose their leaves and their metabolism slows down.<\/p>\n

To Michele baobabs are a \u201cwhole ecosystem and like the sentinels in the veld.\u201d They provide food and shelter for a variety of animals. In the Kruger Park many of the trees host mottled spine tails \u2013 birds that live and breed in the trees and are rare in the Southern African region.<\/p>\n

Baobabs do not fit the Norm for Trees<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Asked what is so special about them Michele says “what the tree has seen over all these hundreds of years it has been standing there \u2013 the droughts, the floods, the people, the animals \u2013 to me it is this icon of Africa and such a magical tree.”<\/p>\n

In her opinion a baobab does not fit any of the norms for trees, meaning “that it does its own thing \u2013 to me it is so unique.” She continues to list a number of facts that make the trees special to her:<\/p>\n