Baobab, strange tree

This strange tree also called "bottle tree" or "tree health", belongs to the family of the Bombacaceae, family consisting of 150 species, almost all own trees and tropical regions, whose fruits usually very large, as Durian, Durio zibethinus o el Zapote, Matisia roped.

The Baobab grows in Central Africa and is a native species of the semiarid regions of Sub-Saharan Africa. Height sometimes exceeds 30 meters, but its trunk can exceed 20 dia, and can live to over three thousand years. The Baobab can store from 6.000 to 100.000 liters, as the bark is spongy and has many hollow cavities. Since ancient times the tree was used for the consumption of local people where their fruits and leaves were known for their.
The Baobab is a very useful species for the African peoples, gives a fruit called monkey bread, the size of a small melon containing large amount of vitamin C and is used to prepare soft drinks. Boiled leaves serve as food, pollen even wet glue is used as.
Baobab hollowed trunks have the most picturesque uses. They have served in prison, home, barn, barn. There is talk of a baobab in Zimbabwe used as truck stop because it can protect up 40 people.
Its strange appearance has earned him numerous African legends, is said that if a person drinks water in which seeds have been wet Baobab, will be protected from attack by crocodiles. but if you dare to extract a baobab flower, die devoured by a lion. This tree impressed Antoine de Saint-Exupéry in a way that made them stars of one of the chapters of his masterpiece, “The Little Prince”.
Reproduction is by seed, but germination is not always reliable, sometimes, it occurs in a short time, but, in return, in other cases, the seeds are slow to sprout and fail to develop properly.