Boabs …

Kimberley 24.9

Elsewhere in the world you will find Iguanas, Opossums and Baobabs. In Oz we have Goannas, Possums and Boabs. Australians have been very negligent with words borrowed from other languages. If I were you I wouldn’t lend us anything. Especially if you’re French. We absolutely murder anything French.

The genus is Adansonia. There are eight species. Six are endemic to Madagascar where the genus almost certainly evolved. There is another species in Africa and last but not least is Adansonia gregorii found in north-west Australia. They are very long lived deciduous trees that grow in seasonally arid parts of the world. There are Adansonias alive today that were old when Christ was born.

The seeds, leaves and pith from the fruit (tastes like sherbet not chicken) are allegedly edible and rich in vitamin C.

The Boab flowers overnight, not the greatest strategy for bird and bee pollination. So it may be down to moths and bats. Success results in a pod with many seeds. Indeed Wikipedia tells us Baobab is from the Arabic أَبُو حِبَاب (abū ḥibāb) meaning many-seeded fruit. The fruit pod floats in water and will germinate successfully even after immersion in the sea.

If they started out in Madagascar how did they get to Australia? We can rule out a Gondwanan explanation. The genus has features that suggest it is too modern to have emerged when Africa and Australia were part of one large landmass. Too young for that but too old to have been brought here by the aboriginal settlers. Genetic divergence has been happening for some millions of years rather than the roughly 70,000 years since people arrived. Which leaves a sea borne introduction as the most likely hypothesis. Aboriginal people have certainly helped its dispersal since their arrival.

The Yawaru people of Broome have a traditional craft of carving designs in pearl shell. Some have transferred the art to carving Boab fruit. You can buy them in the market hot off the knife. I bought one 20 plus years ago. They last quite well …

You can see a fish on one side, a turtle on the reverse, traditional motifs for salt water people. The designs are encircled by a Rainbow Serpent.