Why are Africa’s baobab trees dying?

A giant baobab tree at the Pafuri game reserve in Kruger
National Park, South Africa 

Despite typical lifespans of hundreds or even
thousands of years, Africa’s baobab trees are dying off rapidly,
according to a new study by ecologists.

Also known as upside-down trees, baobabs, with
their distinctive bulbous trunks and spindly branches, are
synonymous with the African bush, where the vast majority of them
are found.

Some of the largest are more than 20m wide – one
specimen in South Africa known as the Platland housed a bar until
it began to rot and split apart in 2016.

The baobab is “often referred to as the ‘tree of life’
for its ability to produce nutrient-rich fruit even during Africa’s
harsh dry season”, says CNN, and its longevity is legendary. The oldest
living members of the species date back to the time of the ancient
Greeks.

Now, however, death seems to be catching up with
them.

Between 2005 and 2017, researchers documented
and monitored 60 of the largest baobabs in southern Africa,
including a handful believed to be more than 2,000 years old. Since
the study began, nine of the 13 oldest have died or partially
perished.

This represents a “shocking and dramatic” decline,
says the study’s co-author, Adrian Patrut of the Babeș-Bolyai
University in Romania.

His study, published in the journal Nature Plants, suggests “that the demise of
monumental baobabs may be associated at least in part with
significant modifications of climate conditions that affect
southern Africa in particular”.

Despite their hardy character, baobabs need water just
like any other plant, and southern Africa has become hotter and
dryer in recent years.

Disease is another potential factor, although “none of
the fallen trees have shown signs of infection, and the pattern of
their deaths doesn’t fit with a spreading contagion,” The Atlantic reports.

Plant pathologist Michael Wingfield told Nature
that “we know very little about baobab health”, and
ecologist David Baum said more evidence is needed to
conclusively link the spate of deaths to climate change.

However, he told NPR, “it is very likely that human actions,
whether by changing the local landscape or altering global climate,
have contributed to the death of so many large baobabs”.