The Boab tree - Adansonia gregorii

 Through July and August we have been away exploring the Kimberley region in the far north west Western Australia. This is the first of my posts to bring you images and stories from our trip. I hope you will join me.

The Boab tree, Adansonia gregorii, is an iconic tree of the Kimberley region of the north west Western Australia. It is found only in the Kimberley and western Victoria Region of the Northern Territory, so this tree really does signal to the traveller that they have reached the Kimberley. The huge boab you see below was standing sentinel over the Great Northern Highway south of Derby and east of Broome when we visited in 2009. And it still stands. One can only imagine its age. It is an impressive entry statement to the Kimberley.

The boab is a distinctive and impressive deciduous tree which has a massive, swollen trunk and may reach to a height of 15 metres. Its spreading branches are usually leafless at flowering time, November to February and the large fragrant flowers are white to creamy with numerous stamens. The flowers are pollinated by hawkmoths and birds and convert to pendulous fruits which are large, woody and covered with dense felt of short hairs. The fruit contain many black kidney shaped seeds embedded in a powdery white pith. The hard outer covering of the fruit cracks when they fall from the tree, dispersing the seeds.

Below you can see the flower, the leaves, the trunk, the fruit and the inside of the fruits.

The trunks can either be squat and bulbous or the younger trees can be tall and slender. Sometimes you see circles of younger trees surrounding their older parent.  The Boab is deciduous and sheds its leaves during the dry season. On our recent visit to the Kimberley, during the dry, we saw flowers on trees in Broome, trees totally covered in leaves, and trees that were totally bare except for their fruits. We were told it has been an unusual season.

The Boab is the only Adansonia species found in Australia, the others being natives of Madagascar (6 species) , Africa and the Arabian Peninsula (2 species).  In Africa they are known as baobab. In Australia the boab is distributed throughout much of the Kimberley and into parts of the Northern Territory. They favour the loamy soils of Fitzroy and Ord valleys and the limestone hills of the Oscar and Napier Ranges. Although not native to Broome they have been extensively planted throughout Broome, and are used as street trees in Broome and Derby.

Below you can see some boabs and termite mounds - another common sight in the Pilbara and Kimberley. 

Other names for the boab are Djungeri and baobab. The Bardi aboriginal name is Larrgid and the Nyikina people of Derby call it Larrkardiy.  The aboriginal people used fibre from the roots and trunk to make string. The white pith of the fruit is rich in vitamin C and tastes a little like sherbet and is very refreshing. The roots of young trees and the seeds were used for food and medicine. The seeds were ground into a white paste. The fruit is often etched and decorated for sale to tourists.

In the early 1900s enlarged hollow boabs were sometimes used as prison trees to hold Aboriginal prisoners overnight. Two of these can be seen near Wyndham and Derby.

The Australian boab has been evolving here for 190 million years, and thought to have evolved here from plant material washed across the ocean from Madagascar. It is difficult to calculate the age of particular trees as the trunks are hollow and don't have growth rings. Experts believe that some large trees could be thousands of years old.  

 Boabs can withstand bushfires and drought. The tree stores water in its fibrous trunk and swells during the wet.  

This boab was growing high on a cliff at pretty Galvans Gorge on the Gibb River Road.

 
They really are an amazing tree. I was fascinated by their various shapes and wanted to keep taking photos whenever I saw them. 
And of course, the sunset shot - this is sunset near Marlgu Billabong, south of Wyndham.  

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 And more about the boab from Kathy over at her blog at 50 shades of Age - Boabs of the Kimberley
 

I hope you have enjoyed this look at the boab. Thank you so much for stopping by. I value your comments and look forward to hearing from you. I will try to visit your blogs in return. Have a wonderful week. 

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