Talk:Adansonia

Origin myth

I removed the following story inserted by an anonymous user, without context or attribution. It's sounds familiar to me, though. Maybe it could be reinserted as a story rather than literal fact, if somebody knows where the story came from.

The Baobab was the biggest of all the trees in the bush and he used to brag to all the other trees and wildlife. God heard his bragging and said to the baobab because you're boasting about your size i'm going to turn you upside down to punish you. And that is why the baobab looks like it's roots are on the top.

— Pekinensis 12:51, 3 August 2005 (UTC)

The above is familiar to me too. It's African folklore about the origin of the tree, though I am not familiar with the source of the actual quote. Lendorien 14:29, 4 November 2005

I deleted the reference to the baobab being the national tree of Madagascar because it's not! The traveller's palm (Ravanala madagascariensis) is.

According to this, baobab is the national tree - MPF 10:12, 21 August 2006 (UTC)

It's common knowledge, the story of God shoving the tree back in the ground upside down, within African folklore... so probably okay to leave it. BUT..

Answers.com takes a lot of its information from Wikipedia, so I don't think that its really plaigerizing.

I'm gonna be asking for a review on this whole article. Seems someone has been plaigerizing, not sure if it's them or us here, but I've seen a good chunk of this in two other places, one other online Encyclopedia and at http://www.answers.com/topic/baobab --JT 05:09, 16 November 2006 (UTC)

Grantkruger 19:33, 10 May 2007 (UTC) I edited the page before seeing the above discussion, but the information is good regardless. To the following,

The baobab is occasionally known colloquially as "upside-down tree" (from the Arabic legend which claims that the devil pulled out the tree and planted it upside down).

I added,

This is likely derived from older African lore. The story goes that after creation, each of the animals was given a tree to plant and the stupid hyena planted the baobab upside-down!

I'm from South Africa and I've heard this story from several tribes in South Africa and Mozambique. It is often credited to the bushmen who are amongst the world's oldest people, though their older history is of course oral, rather than written.

Peer Review?

Not sure if this is the best way to get this looked at, but given that I've seen a LOT of the content of this article in two different places, it'd probably be good to be sure it's not lifted.

--JT 05:41, 16 November 2006 (UTC)

I moved the template to the top. Meanwhile, since Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia is a free encyclopedia, people are free to duplicate the content elsewhere as long as they adhere to the licenses. Answers.com is one such place. There are other places that do the same, and some even mirror User pages as well. If you do a Google search for "User:Kjoonlee" I'm sure you'll find places other than Wikipedia. --Kjoonlee 06:57, 16 November 2006 (UTC)

Hi JT - good that you are looking out for potential copyright violations, but you needn't worry in this case, answers.com is copied from here (and they do, as required by the GFDL licence, cite wikipedia as the source: "This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia") - MPF 01:04, 17 November 2006 (UTC)

The myth of the punishment of the Baobab tree is a legend among the Kamba tribe in Kenya and possibly other tribes in eastern Kenya. It is true that these people held this legand in ancient times. Note by Steve Van Nattan-- Lived in Kenya for about 12 years68.47.162.154 23:01, 25 April 2007 (UTC)Insert non-formatted text here

Evolutionary explanation?

Is there a historical explanation for the distribution of baobabs in Africa and Australia? Have they existed since before the continents were separated? (This seems unlikely, as both varities are still classified in the same genus.) Were there ever baobabs in Asia, that could explain the radiation from Africa to Australia? --Saforrest 20:11, 6 June 2007 (UTC)

No, "dispersal between Africa and Australia occurred well after the fragmentation of Gondwana and, therefore, involved over-water dispersal" [1] - MPF 11:04, 28 October 2007 (UTC)

WikiProject Food and drink Tagging

This article talk page was automatically added with {{WikiProject Food and drink}} banner as it falls under Category:Food or one of its subcategories. If you find this addition an error, Kindly undo the changes and update the inappropriate categories if needed. The bot was instructed to tagg these articles upon consenus from WikiProject Food and drink. You can find the related request for tagging here . Maximum and careful attention was done to avoid any wrongly tagging any categories , but mistakes may happen... If you have concerns , please inform on the project talk page -- TinucherianBot (talk) 21:49, 3 July 2008 (UTC)

referring to baobab's age

I removed this statement from the article, since it seems misleading at best:

Few botanists believe these claims of extreme age; current evidence suggests they rarely exceed 400 years.

The statement "few botanists" would seem to suggest that the entire botanist community collectively believes claims of extreme age to be false, when the cited article makes no such claim. With the statement retained, the overall impression one gets is an unwarranted skepticism for radiometric dating. And I hate to be snarky here, but when I hear skepticism for carbon dating, I hear a Creationist subtext. A different article [2] goes into some detail on how they determined the age of several trees reputed to be over 1000 years old (skip down to "Aging Baobabs" in the link given). —Preceding unsigned comment added by Petzl (talk • contribs) 20:24, 30 July 2008 (UTC)

Merging Baobab fruit with Adansonia?

A merging of baobab fruit with this article has been suggested. However, keeping the separate article could facilitate reference to it for cooking/cuisine, nutrition, and other purposes. --A12n (talk) 13:43, 30 August 2008 (UTC)

The articles should be merged but the one on baobab fruit nutrients is completely unreferenced and would not presently qualify to be used as fact. --Paul144 (talk) 13:58, 30 August 2008 (UTC)

I agree. Doesn't look like there is much useful in the Baobab fruit article. Whatever is salvagable can be merged here, but that won't be much. It almost reads like spam for some food supplement. --Crusio (talk) 00:11, 4 September 2008 (UTC)

Youall might like to consider merging baobab fruit with Adansonia digitata, rather than Adansonia. Lavateraguy (talk) 19:11, 24 September 2008 (UTC)

See also this page Lavateraguy (talk) 19:16, 24 September 2008 (UTC)

Units?

up to 120,000 liters or 32,000 US gallons)

Its not completely clear to me from the WP:UNITS ; should articles like this one state non-SI units for given figures? it says International scope: Wikipedia is not country-specific; unless tackling region-specific topics, use international units , but further examples it gives merely speak of giving them priority, using them along with others? --78.0.228.98 (talk) 23:07, 1 October 2008 (UTC)

I think it's covered by Conversions to and from metric units and US or imperial units should generally be provided. That's why the convert template exists. Eeekster (talk) 23:51, 1 October 2008 (UTC)

Ah, I see, thx --78.0.228.98 (talk) 00:36, 2 October 2008 (UTC)

baobab in india

The page states that baobab is found in africa and australia. But a large no of baobabs are found in india. Could it be that the baobab is foreign to india. Any information on history of baobab in india is solicited. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 117.196.178.163 (talk) 07:09, 9 October 2008 (UTC)

Baobab (Adansonia digitata) is an introduced species in India. Lavateraguy (talk) 18:25, 13 October 2008 (UTC)

Uses

This book says Adansonia baobab leaves are used as a spice. --Una Smith (talk) 05:36, 27 November 2009 (UTC)

Tenuous cultural ref worth having?

As of 22:16, 7 July 2010 User:Nbarth added "The Senegalese band Orchestra Baobab is named for the Baobab Club in Dakar, which in turn takes its name from the tree."

Seems a bit tenuous adding the band but not the club if the band is named after the club not the tree? I'd remove but only with more agrement. Trev M  ~  23:11, 7 July 2010 (UTC)

Section on notable specimens?

Is a section on notable specimens worth creating? Trev M  ~  21:23, 10 July 2010 (UTC)

Diameter

Hi. I was intrigued by the expression "average diamater", which would mean an estimate of the diameter along the trunk, from its biggest diameter at the base to the diameter just below branching off. Looking for clarity, I went to the cited source, but there is no mention whatsoever of any diameter. Rui ''Gabriel'' Correia (talk) 21:24, 21 October 2010 (UTC)

Advertising

The following advertising is moved here because it is not appropriate for the article page (per WP:EL):

Where to buy it?

• Mighty Baobab Limited seem to be the global supplier of Baobab fruit pulp and Baobab Oil. The company is based in the United Kingdom, however they supply globally, for bulk and retail customers.
• http://www.mightybaobab.com

Nadiatalent (talk) 19:32, 15 January 2012 (UTC)

Lore and myths section?

There seems to be a lot of lore and myths around the tree. A section may be appropriate to compare them. Insomesia (talk) 13:09, 1 June 2012 (UTC)

The dried fruit powder contains about 12% water?!

In the Fruit section it says "he dried fruit powder contains about 12% water and various nutrients..." which makes no sense. How is it a dried fruit powder can have 12% water in it. Last time I checked the words dried and powder mean it has no water. If this sentence is incorrect then it should be fixed or if there is an explanation as to how it can be true then it needs to be rewritten to clarify the confusion. --67.103.38.162 (talk) 22:19, 23 January 2013 (UTC)