Adansonia gregorii
Template:Short description Template:Use dmy dates Template:Use Australian English Template:Italic title Template:Speciesbox
Adansonia gregorii, commonly known as the boab and also known by a number of other names, is a tree in the family Malvaceae, endemic to the northern regions of Western Australia and the Northern Territory of Australia.
NamesEdit
The specific name gregorii honours the Australian explorer Augustus Gregory.<ref name="Gregory`s Tree">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name=gregstree>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
The most widely recognised common name is 'boab', which is a shortened form of the generic common name 'boabab'. It does, however, have many other common names, including:
- baobab — the common name for the genus as a whole, but often used in Australia to refer to the Australian species
- Australian baobab<ref name=seeds>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation
|CitationClass=web }}</ref>
- boabab was in common use from the late 1850s<ref name="baobab">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation
|CitationClass=web }}</ref> (Perhaps the origin of boab)
- baob<ref name="baob-1">Template:Cite news</ref><ref name="baob-2">Template:Cite news</ref>
Gadawon<ref name=fd>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> is one of the names used by the local Aboriginal Australian groups. Other names include larrgadi<ref name="Moore 2022">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> or larrgadiy, which is widespread in the Nyulnyulan languages of the Western Kimberley.Template:Citation needed
Other names include:
- bottle tree<ref name=seeds/> or bottletree<ref name=tropical/>
- cream of tartar tree<ref name=fd/><ref name=tropical/>
- gourd-gourd tree<ref name=tropical>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation
|CitationClass=web }}</ref>
- gouty stem tree<ref name=tropical/>
- monkey bread tree<ref name="baobab" /><ref name="Moore 2022"/>
- sour gourd<ref name=fd/>
- upside down tree<ref name=parks>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation
|CitationClass=web }}</ref>
- dead rat tree<ref name="Moore 2022"/>
HabitatEdit
Endemic to Australia, boab occurs in the Kimberley region of Western Australia<ref name=mabey2015>Template:Cite book</ref> and east into the Northern Territory. It is the only baobab to occur in Australia, the others being native to Madagascar and mainland Africa<ref name="Moore 2022"/> and the Arabian Peninsula.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> There are various theories as to how the tree got to Australia, with A. gregorii and A. digitata, its African relative, being very similar genetically.<ref name="Moore 2022"/>
It can grow from sea level to about Template:Cvt in altitude, and is most often found in open forest and rocky areas, but is also seen in monsoon forest.<ref name=tropical/>
DescriptionEdit
As with other baobabs, Adansonia gregorii is easily recognised by the swollen base of its trunk, which forms a massive caudex, giving the tree a bottle-like appearance.<ref name=mabey2015/> Boab ranges from Template:Cvt in height, usually Template:Cvt, with a broad bottle-shaped trunk,<ref name=FloraBase>Template:FloraBase</ref> up to Template:Cvt in diameter.<ref name="Moore 2022"/>
A. gregorii is deciduous, losing its leaves during the dry winter period and producing new leaves and large white flowers between December and May,<ref name="FloraBase" /> up to Template:Cvt long.<ref name="Moore 2022"/> The flowers open at night, and have a calyx about Template:Cvt long. The inner surface is densely sericeous.<ref name=tropical/>
Boabs are pollinated by the convolvulus hawk-moth Agrius convolvuli.<ref name="Baum">Baum, D.A., 1995, A Systematic Revision of Adansonia (Bombacaceae). Annals of the Missouri Botanical Garden, 1995, Vol. 82, No. 3 (1995), pp. 440-471</ref>
The tree's bark has a remarkable property, in that it can maintain inscribed markings for long periods of time, over more than a century.<ref name=tropical/> Some specimens of the African relative of boabs have been estimated to live close to 2,000 years, but the Australian ones are not as well-documented.<ref name="Moore 2022"/>
UsesEdit
The plant has a wide variety of uses; most parts are edible and it is the source of a number of materials. Its medicinal products and the ability to store water through dry seasons has been exploited.<ref name="Vickers">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Aboriginal Australians obtained water from the tree, owing to its ability to store huge amounts of water; some of the oldest and largest trees can hold more than Template:Cvt of water in their trunks.<ref name="Moore 2022"/> They also use the white powder that fills the seed pods (or pith, said to taste like sherbet<ref name=tropical/> or cream of tartar<ref name="Moore 2022"/>) as a food.
Decorative paintings or carvings were sometimes made on the outer surface of the fruit.<ref name="Moore 2022"/>
The bark and leaves are used medicinally, in particular for digestive ailments.<ref name=abc2016>Template:Cite news</ref>
The root fibres are used to create string.<ref name=tropical/>
The 1889 book Useful Native Plants of Australia states that "The dry acidulous pulp of the fruit is eaten. It has an agreeable taste, like cream of tartar".<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
European use of the trees has included letter boxes and jails.<ref name=tropical/>
The leaves may see a future use prepared as food, due to their high iron content.<ref name=abc2016/> The leaves can be boiled and eaten as a spinach; the seeds can be ground and used as a coffee-like beverage, and fermenting the pulp creates a type of beer.<ref name="Moore 2022"/>
Notable treesEdit
A large hollow boab south of Derby, Western Australia is reputed to have been used in the 1890s as a lockup for Aboriginal prisoners on their way to Derby for sentencing. The Boab Prison Tree, Derby is now a tourist attraction.<ref>Boab Prison Tree Template:Webarchive, About-Australia.com. Retrieved 1 February 2009.</ref>
Another hollow boab near Wyndham, Western Australia was also used as a prison tree. The Hillgrove Lockup or Wyndham Prison Tree is on the King River Road out of Wyndham near the Moochalabra Dam.<ref name="hillgrove-1">Template:Cite news</ref><ref name="hillgrove-2">Template:Cite news</ref><ref name="hillgrove-3">Template:Cite news</ref><ref name="hillgrove-4">Template:Cite news</ref> There is also a boab tree located within the Wyndham Caravan Park that is billed as "the biggest boab in captivity".<ref name="Flickr 2022">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
Gija Jumulu is a large boab which was transported from Warmun in the Kimberley region to Kings Park in the Western Australian capital city, Perth in 2008. Template:As of the tree was growing well, after an initial period showing signs of stress after the move, demonstrating the adaptability of the species in a different climate.<ref name="Moore 2022"/>
Gregory's Tree, in the Gregory's Tree Historical Reserve at Timber Creek, NT, is an Aboriginal sacred site and a registered Australian heritage site. The boab tree marks the site of a camp of the explorer Augustus Charles Gregory, and is inscribed with the dates of his party's arrival and departure, from October 1855 to July 1856.<ref name="Gregory`s Tree"/><ref name=gregstree/>
DendroglyphsEdit
In 2021, a collaborative project to find and trace histories etched in boab trees in the Kimberley was launched. Funded by the Australian Research Council, archaeologists from the Australian National University (ANU), the University of Western Australia, the University of Canberra, and University of Notre Dame Australia are working with Aboriginal communities and using advanced technology (photogrammetry<ref name=salleh2022/>) to record 3D images of carvings on the trees.<ref name="parks"/> It is "the first systematic survey and recording program of carved boab trees in Australia".<ref name=salleh2022/>
In October 2022, the team published the results of their recent survey of such trees in the Tanami Desert.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> The survey records the tree markings, also known as dendroglyphs, relating to the Lingka Dreaming track across the desert. Also known as the King Brown Snake dreaming, many of the carvings are of snakes, but also include emu and kangaroo tracks; geometric markings; and, further west, crocodiles, turtles and Wanjina figures. The researchers also found stone artefacts and broken grinding stones, used for grinding seeds, as camps were often made underneath the large shady trees.<ref name=salleh2022>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
In filmEdit
A boab tree is featured in the 1992 animated film FernGully: The Last Rainforest to imprison the film's antagonist, Hexxus.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
The boab tree is celebrated in the end credits of the 2008 film Australia with the song "By the Boab Tree", a song nominated for a 2008 Satellite Award, with lyrics by Baz Luhrmann and performed by Sydney singer Angela Little.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
GalleryEdit
- Boab, Timber Creek, NT - Melissa Jamcotchian.JPG
Boab in Timber Creek, NT
- Boab (Adansonia gregorii) - Nitmiluk NT.jpg
Boab in Nitmiluk (Katherine Gorge), NT
- Boab - Katherine River.jpg
Boab at Katherine River, NT
- Adansonia gregorii sunset.jpg
Boab tree sunset near Derby, WA
ReferencesEdit
Works cited
External linksEdit
Template:Sister project Template:Sister project
- Template:Cite news Photographs of the Australian Boab – Adansonia gregorii (Includes photographs of both prison trees).
- {{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation
|CitationClass=web }} Photograph by M.E. McCombe ca.1917-1925.