Do you live near a baobab tree? Calling all citizen scientists! We need YOUR help to find out how baobab pollination really happens in SA. Join the Baobab Blitz on 18th & 19th November and help us figure out what’s pollinating our Baobab trees. Is it bats? Is it hawkmoths? You could be instrumental in helping us find out once and for all!
Inspired by her PhD research on baobab trees, Dr Sarah Venter wanted to make the fascinating information usually available only in obscure scientific papers, available to a much broader audience including children. The Little BIG BAOBAB book is for everyone who loves baobab trees…
A little while ago I told you about our Baobab Preschool Programme which our EcoProducts Foundation is supporting. Another project that we’re so excited about is the Baobab Guardians programme. The baobab tree takes 200 years to produce its first fruits, can live for over 1000 years, survives and even flourishes in almost desert-like conditions; […]
When baobabs are still young they are vulnerable to damage. This young baobab was damaged at the base, but it was helped to survive by coppicing (sprouting). After a few years most of the coppice shoots die but two or three remain leaving the tree to develop into a multistemed tree which you can clearly see in […]
I went to visit Blessing to see how her seedlings are getting on. Blessing’s seedlings are looking lovely. They were planted in Feburary this year just after a community training workshop on how to grow baobabs. Soon the seedlings will lose their leaves for the winter and look like sticks and then in the spring […]
I always get excited when I see baobab seedlings emerging from the earth near or under the baobab trees. It shows that the seeds are viable and that the weather was perfect. Unfortunately their survival is very slim because of the harsh climate they need to survive in and because they are simply too delicious […]
In November last year EcoProducts did a workshop with 50 rural women harvesters in how to grow and conserve baobabs. Each woman was given a seed and a planting bag to take home. Well, when I visited the village this week, some of the women took me to see their so- called seedlings. They had […]
Last month, 50 rural women harvesters attended a baobab growing and sustainable harvesting course. I had such fun with this, taking 50 rural women baobab fruit harvesters on a field trip from Zigodini village to Pafuri River Camp Nursery, on the banks of the Mutale River. The course was done with a mixture of practical […]