Baobabs

Welcome to the wonderful world of baobabs!



Baobabs are the national tree of Madagascar. And they are awesome. They're sometimes called Monkey Bread Trees. They can grow up to 100 feet. They can store up to 32,000 gallons of water in their trunks, which is why they're perfect for the area around Morondova (where these pictures were taken) in the West of the country, where it rains for a few months of the year with relentless fury and then is dry the rest of the time.
























There are many legends of the Baobab, most centering on the idea that the baobab is somehow upside-down (ie, those are roots in the air, not branches). Some say that all the animals in the world were given trees, but the hyenna planted his upside-down. The more common one is that the tree grew so tall that it threatened God, and so he scooped it up and threw it back to earth headlong. Regardless of origin, they are the only fully protected trees in the country, and therefore the only ones that don't get cut down regularly.

Some things to notice, then, are the way they tower above the countryside, almost like mushroom clouds or those muppets with the long yellow necks and tufts of pink hair; the scale of them as compared to the nearby children and goats (who were playing some version of king of the hill on the stump); the intertwined or "kissing" baobabs; the color changes involved in sundown, as well as the moon; and, more generally, the fact that they are really cool.












If anyone's hankering for more, these 32 shots were culled from about 100...