NEW MALAWI UPDATE FROM JOE GALLAGHER

As you walk around the villages along the lake shore large trees canbe seen in the middle of the street around which people and the few vehicles have to maneuvre! One might wonder why these trees remainhere in the way of things and two reasons emerge - firstly they are thousands of years old and were here before any humans arrived and secondly their wood is poor for burning and therefore cutting themdown is of little use and a lot of work for local people! These trees are known as Baobab trees and this is the common name of a genus(Adansonia) containing eight species of trees, of which one typeoccurs on mainland Africa. In Malawi Baobabs are found principally on the lake shore. Storieshave passed down through the generations of how God angry with the baobab picked up the tree and flung it back into the ground upsidedown. In Namibia it is said that God gave each animal a seed of a tree to plant. The hyena was left until last and angry at this planted the seed of the baobab tree upside down. Research has shown that the tree grows fast for the first 270 years and then slows down.Baobab trees do not produce annual growth rings and so radiocarbondating is used to estimate their age.

They produce big white flowersin October with each bloom lasting only 24 hours. These flowers are then pollinated by the fruit bat. It is a deciduous tree and shedsits leaves during the dry season from April until October. Baobabs store water inside the swollen trunk (up to 120,000 litres) to endurethe harsh drought conditions which occur during the dry season and hence their poor burning potential.The species reach heights of 5 to 30 metres (16 to 98 ft) and trunkdiameters of 7 to 11 metres (23 to 36 ft). An African Baobab specimenin Limpopo Province, South Africa, often considered the largest example alive, has a circumference of 47 metres (150 ft) and anaverage diameter of 15 metres (49 ft) and has been radiocarbon datedto be 6,000 years old.

The baobab has many uses here in Africa. The leaves are commonly used as a leaf vegetable throughout the area of mainland African distribution. They are eaten both fresh and as a dry powder. The fruit is nutritious possibly having more vitamin C than oranges and exceeding the calcium content of cow's milk Also known as "sour gourd"or "monkey's bread", the dry fruit pulp separated from seeds and fibers is eaten directly or mixed into porridge or milk. In Malawi,the fruit pulp is used to make a nutrient-rich juice.

Having a distinctive foul smell, tree parts may have been used by primitive tribes to ward off evil spirits, making the tree known inAfrican folklore as "God's Thumb."A Major Trollip while stationed in Namibia during World War One installed a flush toilet in his local hollow baobab where it remainsto this day (see picture)!

So these ancient trees have many uses here on this continent and are likely to remain an obstruction in thestreets of Africa for some time! Tionana