What is "adansonia"

Adansonia \Ad`an*so"ni*a\, n. [From Adanson, a French botanist.] (Bot.) A genus of great trees related to the Bombax. There are two species, Adansonia digitata, the baobab or monkey-bread of Africa and India, and Adansonia Gregorii, the sour gourd or cream-of-tartar tree of Australia. Both have a trunk of moderate height, but of enormous diameter, and a wide-spreading head. The fruit is oblong, and filled with pleasantly acid pulp. The wood is very soft, and the bark is used by the natives for making ropes and cloth.
--D. C. Eaton. [1913 Webster] ||

n. Any member of the tree genus ''Adansonia'', the baobabs.

Baobab is the common name for each of the nine species of tree in the genus Adansonia. The generic name honours Michel Adanson, the French naturalist and explorer who described Adansonia digitata.

Of the nine species, six are native to Madagascar, two are native to mainland Africa and the Arabian Peninsula, and one is native to Australia. One of the mainland African species also occurs on Madagascar, but it is not a native of that island. It was introduced in ancient times to south Asia and during the colonial era to the Caribbean. It is also present in the island nation of Cape Verde. The ninth species was described in 2012, and is found in upland populations of southern and eastern Africa. The African and Australian baobabs are almost identical, having separated less than 100,000 years ago.

Baobabs reach heights of and have trunk diameters of . The Glencoe baobab, a specimen of A. digitata in Limpopo Province, South Africa, was considered to be the largest living individual, with a maximum circumference of and a diameter of about . The tree has since split into two parts, so the widest individual trunk may now be that of the Sunland baobab, or Platland tree, also in South Africa. The diameter of this tree at ground level is and its circumference at breast height is .

Adansonia trees produce faint growth rings, probably annually, but they are not reliable for aging specimens, because they are difficult to count and may fade away as the wood ages. Radiocarbon dating has provided data on a few individuals. A specimen of A. digitata known as Grootboom was dated and found to be at least 1275 years old, making it one of the oldest known angiosperm trees.