Does any species of flora just shout Africa as loud as the Baobab?

I have seen some really special trees. It is amazing how big they can get !

I wish I could say that I took these pictures, but I didn't. A friend of mine received them and passed them on to me. The tree's exact location is unknown to either of us. We do know that it is somewhere along the Limpopo River. Of course, that's a big river. I would also guess that it is near a city.

If any of you know more about it, please share !


http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y225/raznaran/Baobab.jpg

I look at these pictures and I can smell Africa.

http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y225/raznaran/Baobab9.jpg

Now, here's the surprise ! The roots are beautifully carved !

http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y225/raznaran/Baobab8.jpg

I have never seen anything like this !

http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y225/raznaran/Baobab7.jpg

http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y225/raznaran/Baobab6.jpg

http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y225/raznaran/Baobab5.jpg

http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y225/raznaran/Baobab4.jpg

http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y225/raznaran/Baobab3.jpg

http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y225/raznaran/Baobab2.jpg

I hope you enjoy these as much as we did !

thats fantastic 450!
i've seen a lot of baobabs over the years, and some fabulous carvings there as well, but never anything to match this.
wonder if the carvings of chimps place it quite farther north than the limpopo?

Purdy amazing from my seat in Iowa. Burr oak trees are as close as I have around here. I have counted growth rings out to 350 on some limbs (not the trunk). They grow "kinda knarly" like that though.

How old would that tree be? What is it used for when harvested? Interesting pictures indeed!

Thanks for posting.

Cheezywan

The trees are really incredible. The following is a quote from this link:

http://arted.osu.edu/kplayground/baobabtree.htm

"The baobab tree has an enormous trunk with tapering branches and can attain a maximum height of 75 feet and maximum diameter of 60 feet around the trunk. It is also one of the longest lived trees in the world; radio-carbon dating has measured ages of over 2,000 years."

Another thing that is really incredible is that the really big old ones will have so many diverse animals living on it that they are practically a "stand alone" ecosystem.

I've also seen them in elephant country where they had been beaten up by elephants for probably hundreds of years. They were even more bent and twisted than usual.

You also see them, like in the photos, near water. Ground water isn't usually all that deep and they grow to immense sizes even when nowhere near apparent water.

They are just one of the many wonders that is Africa. I would encourage every single guy to try and figure out a way to get there. Even for just a short hunt. You will never regret it. In fact, everyone I've talked to that's made the trip, can't believe it took them so long to do it !

Cheers.
Richard

Very cool tree. It is man made and located in Orlando, Florida.

that would definately place it further north than the Limpopo!

What a hoot !

Wouldn't you know Disney would have the coolest Africa tree !

I have seen some incredible treees and I've seen some incredible carving. Thought someone brought the two together.

I had wondered how carving the roots didn't hurt the tree.

Thanks Ken K. I can't wait to bust my buddy's chops in about an hour ! I am going to accuse him of going to Disneyworld instead of Botswana !

I did not suspect it wasn't real when I first saw this thread. I'm pretty good at finding stuff on the internet so I was going to find out where it was for you. I was figuring some park in Africa.

Here's a thread about it I found. (After you pointed it out). It's even the same photos. I emailed my buddy just a bit ago. He's just gotten back from Botswana with his new wife. I told him I'd blown his cover and that I now knew he'd actually been at Disneyworld.

One of the comments I found about the tree is that it took three years to build. Supposedly it was built around a fifteen story oil platform of some kind. They say you can go inside it and watch a movie.

I'm not testifying to nothing here, mind ya!

I've been scammed right here on Shooters Forum! No harm. At least it wasn't load data.

Cheezywan

Yes, and I did it. My apologies to one and all. I was spoofed as well.

Cheers.

I think disney's name for it is "the tree of life"

Okay. I promised you a tree ! Here ya go. This is me standing in front of a tree. We had the tree constructed on our ranch. Or maybe it's Masailand. I don't remember.

http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y225/raznaran/MasaiLand9658.jpg

This time, I'm skeptical. If real, is awesome.
Is there a common use for such a tree if harvested? Gun stock for instance? Is way to large for any of my saws.

Cheezywan

No. Just joking. This is the real thing. No photoshop, no nothin'. This is pretty typical of the trees we would see in Masailand. They truly are incredible. You should Google Baobab Tree. There's a lot of data. The following is an example:

"These trees may be the oldest life forms on the African continent. Many still standing today have certainly been around since the birth of Christ; others for far longer. Baobab trees flower for the first time at about 20 years of age. In mid-summer, dozens of luminous white blossoms—the size of saucers—open at sunset. Their strong musky odor attracts fruit bats and hosts of insects. Large bats seek out the sweet nectar and collect and distribute pollen as they move from flower to flower. The life of the flower is short-lived; it drops to the ground within hours after the bats and insects feast on the nectar.

The seeds are housed in a hairy pod that resembles a miniature rugby ball, inside of which is a white pulp from which “cream of tartar” is derived. Once the flowers fall to the ground, the pods are fed upon by baboons, monkeys, antelope and elephants, who disperse the hard baobab seeds inside the pod.

The baobab’s branches, with their hollows, dents and bloated stems, provide shelter and home for a great many animals: bushbabies, squirrels, rodents, lizards, snakes and tree frogs, as well as spiders, scorpions, and insects may live their entire lives in a single tree.

Holes in the trunk provide ideal nesting sites for birds, such as rollers, hornbills, parrots, kestrels and spinetails. Larger cavities are often occupied by families of Barn Owls or Ground Hornbills. Eagles, vultures and storks frequently build their large stick nests on the outer branches. The nests of red-billed Buffalo-weavers are more often found in Baobabs than any other tree."

you had me fooled there !!!

lucky i scrolled down !!!!

i am from south africa, close to the limpopo, and a tree like that would have been a landmark indeed !!!

so, lucky i scrolled down !!!!:D