Uncommon Trees - I
All the way from Africa
A tree introduced by Arabs from Africa, the baobab, also called the African calabash, is Adansonia digitata carrying the Tamil name of annaipuli. It is found in the Chepauk cricket ground, (a couple of them) at the eastern and of Wallajah Road where it meets the Buckingham Canal. I remember to have seen a couple of these trees on Harrington Road, near Chinmaya Mission buildings: whether you can see them now is more than I can say.
Queer in appearance caused by a broad base and tapering towards the top, the baobab is a giant tree with a smooth trunk, not tall but with a girth anywhere between 30-100 feet.
When its leaves are shed, it looks like a mushroom turned upside-down. Consequently, the tree is sure to catch your eye, not casually but with a stunning sense of curiosity.
Queer not only in looks, it is queer in other ways too. For instance, many fast-growing trees have a short span of life. But the baobab is fast-growing and long lived too.
The leaves are palmately compound, i.e. the leaf stalk bears five leaflets radiating from a central point. The baobab is deciduous, shedding its leaves in the cold season, another queer point at least insofar as Chennai's weather is concerned: queer because, almost all the trees of Chennai are full with leaves during the so-called 'cold' season of
Chennai.
New leaves sprout in spring and soon flowers appear. The flowers are massive, with creamy white petals that curl outward. They bloom around midnight and wither away by mid-morning.
The fruit has acid pulp from which a cooling drink is made: hence, the name African calabash. The drink soothes irritation, cures scurvy and relieves stomach complaints. The dried fruits are employed as floats by fishermen and water-cans by the wandering monks. From the bark
fibres, an extremely strong rope is made.
The native Negroes of Africa embalm dead bodies in the hollows dug out in the trunk: another queer point.
With all its uses, including the edibility of the leaves, the baobab has not caught the attention of the horticulturist, vouched by the fact that it is not cultivated even in places where it grows well, without demanding much care.
