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Adansonia gregorii

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This photo is taken in Northern Territory, Australia. One of the "prison trees". The big trees gets hollows, which makes it impossible to tell, how old they are. Probably between 500 and 1000 years!


The seedlings in Copenhagen Botanical Garden. It is possible to see the thickened stem.


The fruit.

Author:  Ferdinand J. H. von Mueller, 1857
Family:  BOMBACACEAE*
Origin:  North-Western  Australia
Soil:  Grit
Water:  Maximum
Sun:  Maximum
Thickness:  5 Meters
Height:  20 Meters
Flower:  White
Propagate:  Seeds/Cuttings
Names:  Baob, Baobab. 
Synonyms:  Capparis gibbosa, A.Cunn.
Adansonia gibbosa, Guymer ex D.A.Baum
Adansonia gregorii f. globosa, Ostenf.
Adansonia gregorii f. typica, Ostenf.
Adansonia rupestris, Kent
Adansonia stanburyana, Hochr.
Baobabus gregorii, Kuntze

The big and beautiful tree appears only in the north-western part of Australia. It was given this name by Ferdinand Jacob Heinrich von Mueller in 1857. It belongs to the Bombacaceae* family. The trunk will get op to 5 meter wide and the tree up to 20 meters high. It can be reproduced by cuttings and seeds. Grows best in grit, lots of water and sun in summer and dry in winter.

There are 6-10 species of Adansonias on Madagascar, one in Africa and this one in the Kimberley region (Northern and Western Territory), Australia.

It has gourd/egg-formed green fruits, which can be 18 cm long, with several seeds in a vitamin C hard-foam.

Well, I got some seeds, but they didn't seem to germinate. Gave most of them to Copenhagen Botanical Garden, and they had more "luck". Some boil or freeze them, but they didn't. 

I done some additionally experiments, and most successful by far it simply to throw them into a cup of 90C hot water, and leave them cooling in for 24 hours. Gave me 100% success, against 0% with no treatment.

Named after the French naturalist Michel Adanson,1727-1806 and explorer Charles Augustus Gregory,1819-1905 by Ferdinand von Mueller in 1857. Conningham called it Capparis gibbosa in 1820, but the gregorii persisted as its official name.

*)Accordantly to the latest taxonomic system; APG IV 2016, Bombacaceae is now part of the Malvaceae.


The big and beautiful flowers appear mostly at night.