Baobab Tree Germination
Scientific Name: Adansonia digitata
Common Name: Baobab
Kiswahili Name: Mbuyu
Background:
Perhaps no other tree is more closely idenitified
with the continent of Africa than the giant Baobab tree. Ubiquitous
throughout Western, Eastern and Southern Africa, this magnificent
tree plays several dominant cultural and environmental roles like
few species I know.
Baby baobab in TZ 
Collecting Seed Pods
In Zimbabwe, Baobob trees are thought to contain the souls of former chiefs or village leaders. In Tanzania, the sanctity of these trees stems from a similar belief in ancestral worship. Prayers and offerings made to ancestral spirits for their help in solving problems will often take place around a Baobab tree and usually one tree becomes so popular that prayer ties(ribbons) will be more numerous than its leaves during certain seasons. Because of these beliefs it is often taboo and perhaps illegal to cut down or remove these trees which can lead to some very interesting highway designs. In Dar es Salaam, a 4-laned street becomes divided around a Baobab with a trunk diameter of close to 7 feet. A colleague of mine was prohibited from planting a small Baobab seedling on her rental property because the landlord knew that as it grew larger he would lose any chance of using that space and it would be taboo to ever remove it once it became established.
Seeds for this project were collected from adult baobab trees from various regions of Tanzania in the spring of 2002. Some were found along the coastline and others inland. All seeds were grouped together for this project.
The Project:
In the fall of 2004, a sample of 20 seeds were
scarified with a sulfuric acid treatment. Half were placed in
soil and then into baggies, the other half were placed on petri
dishes with moist paper and then slid into baggies. All seeds
were placed into an incubator at 27 degrees C.
Results:
No seeds placed into soil after scarification
germinated. They did absorb moisture and swell but did not produce
any roots.
The seeds set on petri dishes did germination with over a 90% success rate. The length of time for radicals to appear was 8-15 days.
 
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Seeds were incubated in soil and out of soil. |
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Seeds absorbed moisture causing the seed coat to split, the radical (primary root) emerged after 8-12 days. |
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These photos show the development of the seedlings over a period of a few weeks. Notice the seed coat remained pinched onto the cotyledons even after the secondary leaves are formed. I eventually tried to squeeze the very hard and dry seed coat to release the leaves but was unsuccessful in most cases resulting in torn ends to the leaves. This did not cause any permanent damage to the seedling. |
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7th Season Photos-(Aug 2011)
