''Adansonia za'' is a species of baobab in the genus ''

Adansonia ''Adansonia'' is a genus made up of eight species of medium-to-large deciduous trees known as baobabs ( or ). They are placed in the Malvaceae family, subfamily Bombacoideae. They are native to Madagascar, mainland Africa, and Australia.Tropic ...

'' of the family

Malvaceae Malvaceae, or the mallows, is a family of flowering plants estimated to contain 244 genera with 4225 known species. Well-known members of economic importance include okra, cotton, cacao and durian. There are also some genera containing familiar ...

(previously included in the

Bombacaceae Bombacaceae were long recognised as a family of flowering plants or Angiospermae. The family name was based on the type genus ''Bombax''. As is true for many botanical names, circumscription and status of the taxon has varied with taxonomic point ...

). It was originally named in French as .

Common name In biology, a common name of a taxon or organism (also known as a vernacular name, English name, colloquial name, country name, popular name, or farmer's name) is a name that is based on the normal language of everyday life; and is often contrast ...

s in Malagasy include , , , , , and , the last of which gives the plant its

specific epithet In taxonomy, binomial nomenclature ("two-term naming system"), also called nomenclature ("two-name naming system") or binary nomenclature, is a formal system of naming species of living things by giving each a name composed of two parts, bot ...

. Eight ''Adansonia'' species are recognized, with six

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found elsew ...

Madagascar Madagascar (; mg, Madagasikara, ), officially the Republic of Madagascar ( mg, Repoblikan'i Madagasikara, links=no, ; french: République de Madagascar), is an island country in the Indian Ocean, approximately off the coast of East Africa ...

. ''Adansonia za'' is the most widespread of the Madagascar endemics.

Description

''Adansonia za'' is a large thick-stemmed ( pachycaul)

deciduous tree In the fields of horticulture and Botany, the term ''deciduous'' () means "falling off at maturity" and "tending to fall off", in reference to trees and shrubs that seasonally shed leaves, usually in the autumn; to the shedding of petals, afte ...

, about tall and about in diameter. The trunk and branches have a brownish-rose colored hue. The tree is widest at the base, narrowing noticeably towards the top of the tree.

Leaves

Leaves are

palmate The following is a list of terms which are used to describe leaf morphology in the description and taxonomy of plants. Leaves may be simple (a single leaf blade or lamina) or compound (with several leaflets). The edge of the leaf may be regular o ...

ly lobed with 5 to 8 lobes per leaf.Baum, D.A., 1995, A Systematic Revision of Adansonia (Bombacaceae). Annals of the Missouri Botanical Garden , 1995, Vol. 82, No. 3 (1995), pp. 440-471 They are long and wide, but often bigger in trees in the northern part of the range, where the leaves can be up to long. The

leaf margin A leaf ( : leaves) is any of the principal appendages of a vascular plant stem, usually borne laterally aboveground and specialized for photosynthesis. Leaves are collectively called foliage, as in "autumn foliage", while the leaves, ste ...

is entire (without teeth).

Flowers

The

flower bud In botany, a bud is an undeveloped or embryonic shoot and normally occurs in the axil of a leaf or at the tip of a stem. Once formed, a bud may remain for some time in a dormant condition, or it may form a shoot immediately. Buds may be speci ...

s are long green cylinders which can resemble oversized beans and could be mistaken for a fruit. Flowers open with or soon after the leaves emerge at the beginning of the wet season. The bud opens with the curling back of the outside layer of the flower bud, revealing yellow and red

petal Petals are modified Leaf, leaves that surround the reproductive parts of flowers. They are often advertising coloration, brightly colored or unusually shaped to attract pollinators. All of the petals of a flower are collectively known as the ''c ...

s with long, yellowish

stamen The stamen (plural ''stamina'' or ''stamens'') is the pollen-producing reproductive organ of a flower. Collectively the stamens form the androecium., p. 10 Morphology and terminology A stamen typically consists of a stalk called the filame ...

s. The corolla is long and wide. Petals are long and wide. The flowers are musty-sweet scented. Flowering period extends from November to February. Flowers are usually

pollinated Pollination is the transfer of pollen from an anther of a plant to the stigma of a plant, later enabling fertilisation and the production of seeds, most often by an animal or by wind. Pollinating agents can be animals such as insects, birds, ...

by moths of the family

Sphingidae The Sphingidae are a family of moths (Lepidoptera) called sphinx moths, also colloquially known as hawk moths, with many of their caterpillars known as “hornworms”; it includes about 1,450 species. It is best represented in the tropics, bu ...

including '' Coelonia solani'', '' Coelonia brevis'' and '' Coelonia mauritii''.

Fruits

Fruits are usually

ovoid An oval () is a closed curve in a plane which resembles the outline of an egg. The term is not very specific, but in some areas (projective geometry, technical drawing, etc.) it is given a more precise definition, which may include either one or ...

and long by wide. They have a blackish, tough, thick outer shell (pericarp). They contain kidney-shaped, laterally-flattened seeds. The seeds have an oil content of 11 percent. In southern populations, the fruits have a markedly thickened peduncle, but this feature is less prominent in northern populations.

Distribution

''Adansonia za'' is

to southern and north-western

. Populations are severely fragmented and numbers are declining due to

habitat loss Habitat destruction (also termed habitat loss and habitat reduction) is the process by which a natural habitat becomes incapable of supporting its native species. The organisms that previously inhabited the site are displaced or dead, thereby ...

and logging.

Habitat

This plant grows in arid

scrubland Shrubland, scrubland, scrub, brush, or bush is a plant community characterized by vegetation dominance (ecology), dominated by shrubs, often also including grasses, Herbaceous plant, herbs, and geophytes. Shrubland may either occur naturally or ...

s, in deciduous forests,

savannah A savanna or savannah is a mixed woodland-grassland (i.e. grassy woodland) ecosystem characterised by the trees being sufficiently widely spaced so that the Canopy (forest), canopy does not close. The open canopy allows sufficient light to rea ...

and in

Madagascar spiny forests The Madagascar spiny forests (also known as the Madagascar spiny thickets) is an ecoregion in the southwest of Madagascar. The vegetation type is found on poor substrates with low, erratic winter rainfall. The ecoregion contains an outstanding pr ...

. It prefers sunny areas and well drained soils, at an elevation up to above sea level. It is the dominant tree in some of the southern deciduous forests, becoming less common to the north.

Largest tree

Possibly the largest tree of this species (by circumference) grows near Reakaly village north-west from

Ampanihy Ampanihy or Ampanihy Ouest is a town in the Atsimo-Andrefana Region, Madagascar. It is home of the Ampanihy Airport and is crossed by the Route Nationale 10. Economy The weaving of rugs from mohair Mohair (pronounced ) is a fabric or yarn ...

. The circumference of its trunk is approximately .

Uses

The fruit pulp and roots of seedlings as well as the seeds are edible. Seeds contain 11% oil. Wood may be fed to cattle during droughts and the trunk can be hollowed out to store water. The bark fibre can be use for cloth or rope and the flowers may be used to sooth sore throats.Ambrose-Oji, B. & Mughogho, N., 2007. Adansonia za Baill. nternetRecord from PROTA4U. van der Vossen, H.A.M. & Mkamilo, G.S. (Editors). PROTA (Plant Resources of Tropical Africa / Ressources végétales de l'Afrique tropicale), Wageningen, Netherlands. . Accessed 10 April 2022.

Gallery

File:Bombacaceae - Adansonia za.jpg, Plants of ''Adansonia za'' File:Adansonia za (leaning baobab).jpg, Leaning ''Adansonia za'' File:Za_baobab.jpg, ''Adansonia za', southern Madagascar File:Amoureux Baobab Morondava Madagascar - panoramio.jpg, The "Baobab Amoureux", near

Avenue of the Baobabs The Avenue of the Baobabs, or Alley of the Baobabs, is a prominent group of Grandidier's baobabs (''Adansonia grandidieri'') lining the dirt road between Morondava and Belon'i Tsiribihina in the Menabe region of western Madagascar. Its striking ...

Menabe Menabe is a Regions of Madagascar, region in western Madagascar, with its capital at Morondava. It covers an area of , and its population was 700,577 in 2018. The population mostly belongs to the Sakalava ethnic group. The region is named after th ...

, Madagascar

References

Sources

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External links

Adansonia za

Conservatoire et Jardin Botaniques Ville de Geneve
{{Taxonbar, from=Q131825 za Endemic flora of Madagascar Near threatened plants Taxonomy articles created by Polbot Plants described in 1890 Taxa named by Henri Ernest Baillon Flora of the Madagascar dry deciduous forests Flora of the Madagascar spiny thickets