Is That Really a Tree?

BY AWAKE! WRITER IN AUSTRALIA

SITTING squat and rotund in a scrubby landscape, Australian boab trees, also called bottle trees, may appear odd, even ugly. Leafless during the dry season, mature boabs look more like a strange creature with tentacles reaching for the sky than they do a tree. An Aboriginal legend says that the tree was cursed and turned upside down!

While young, the trees are relatively slim and attractive. But as they age, their gray trunks become bulbous, battered, and scarred. Boabs have “the appearance of suffering from some disease,” wrote explorer George Grey in 1837. Why are boabs so different from most other trees, and why are they both valued and loved by outback residents, including Aborigines?

Shorter Is Better

Boab trees grow naturally in Africa, Madagascar, and northwestern Australia. However, while most countries call them baobabs, Australians have long used the name boab. Bushmen were fond of shortening names​—because of the likelihood of swallowing the ever-present flies, say local humorists. Thus, they trimmed the name baobab to boab, and the new name soon became firmly rooted in the vernacular.

Boabs are also called dead-rat trees. Why this unflattering designation? From a distance, the tree’s dangling seed pods resemble dead rats strung up by their tails. Also, when the blooms are bruised or damaged, they soon ferment, mimicking the stench of rotting meat. When healthy, however, the flowers are large, white, and fragrant.

Designed for Extremes

Boabs thrive in the remote Kimberley region of Western Australia and in the neighbor state the Northern Territory. There the seasons alternate between the wet, which is the relatively short season of torrential monsoon rains, and the dry.

The resilience of boabs is legendary. They often live for many centuries. “Even if the tree is hollowed out by fire, or completely ringbarked, it usually survives  and, after repairing the damage, continues its growth,” says plant physiologist D. A. Hearne. * He adds: “The tree’s vitality is such that, failing complete destruction, it will continue almost normal growth.” Determined to survive, one boab that was crated and awaiting overseas shipment sent roots through the gaps in the wood and into the soil below!

Growing in stony creek beds, on rocky escarpments, or on sandy plains, boabs often stand taller than neighboring trees. In the Kimberley Plateau, some boabs tower to 80 feet [25 m] or more and measure almost the same around their girth.

The secret behind boab bulk is water. Like a sponge, boab wood is soft, fibrous, and capable of storing a massive amount of liquid. After soaking up water from monsoon rains, a boab’s trunk visibly swells. As the dry season progresses, the tree slowly returns to its previous size.

During the harsh winter months, deciduous trees survive by shedding their leaves. For the boab, this occurs in the long dry season. As the dry season comes to an end, flowers emerge and new foliage bursts forth. Because of this visual announcement of the approaching wet season, locals sometimes call the boab the calendar plant.

The flowers bloom only at night, last for just a matter of hours, and begin to wilt after sunrise. The flower pods mature into large seed nuts, or gourds, which fall to the ground, break apart, and spread their seeds.

Tree of Life

Kimberley Aborigines have long valued boab seeds, leaves, resin, and roots as important sources of food. Before they dry out, the seeds have a soft, white pulp that is pleasant to eat. In times of drought, Aborigines chewed the fibrous wood of the tree and its roots, which provided precious moisture. During good wet seasons, the native people sometimes found water trapped in hollows in the tree and at the base of branches.

In 1856, when members of Augustus Gregory’s expedition to the Kimberley Plateau developed scurvy, they boiled the pith of boab nuts to make “an agreeable jam.” Rich in vitamin C, the pulp soon restored the men to good health.

Windows to the Past

In the past, boabs served as useful message boards for Aborigines and Europeans alike. In 1820 the survey vessel Mermaid beached for repairs on the Kimberley coast. Obeying Admiralty instructions to leave some evidence that could not be mistaken of their having landed, Captain Phillip Parker King carved the inscription “HMC Mermaid 1820” on the trunk of a large boab.

 At the time, the Mermaid Tree, as it came to be called, measured 29 feet [8.8 m] in circumference. Today, its girth measures just over 40 feet [12.2 m]. Though now less clear, the inscription still serves as a memorial to those early explorers. Messages carved deep on some old boabs remain visible to this day and have been seen by tourists from around the world.

When European settlers arrived on the Kimberley Plateau, sprawling boabs became signposts, meeting places, and campsites in an unfamiliar land. Traveling stockmen allowed their cattle to rest under boabs emblazoned with colorful names, such as Oriental Hotel, Club Hotel, or Royal Hotel.

When hostile Aborigines stole German settler August Lucanus’ boat in 1886, his traveling party faced a 60-mile [100 km] trek to the town of Wyndham. Crocodile-infested creeks and rivers lay in their path. Lucanus later wrote that he and his party knew from the diary of an early explorer “where he had planted some carpenter’s tools near Pitt Springs under a big boab tree, with his initials cut in it.” Amazingly, the men located the tree and the tools. They then “cut down a fine big boab tree,” and in five days built a canoe. It floated well, and all made it home safely.

Two of the best-known boab trees are the so-called Derby and Wyndham Prison Trees, both named after nearby towns. Popular folklore says that these hollowed-out giants, each one large enough to shelter several men, served as jails in the 19th century. Some modern historians, however, question these claims. Still, the trees are impressive specimens and popular with tourists.

Boab Art

At one time people carved pictures and messages on boab trunks. Nowadays, though, outback artists spare the trees and use their skills on the egg-shaped boab nuts, which may be up to ten inches [25 cm] long and six inches [15 cm] in diameter.

After picking a suitable nut from a tree, a local artist, using a pocketknife, carves intricate pictures on the brown shell. Popular subjects include native animals, Aboriginal hunting scenes, and human faces and figures. The finished products are often sought by collectors. Other buyers include tourists and local retail shops.

True, the boab may not be as grand as a sequoia, as stately as a poplar, or as colorful as a maple in the fall. Yet, in its own unique way, this hardy, resilient plant is a valuable asset to the outback, a credit to the Creator and, perhaps, an indication that he has a good sense of humor.

[Footnote]

[Picture on page 17]

Flowers bloom at night and die just hours later

[Picture on page 18]

Boab nut carved with the image of a frilled lizard