Adansonia digitata

Baobabdead-rat treemonkey-bread treebottle tree

One of the world's largest and longest living treeswith a thick trunk that grows up to 30 m roundoften becoming hollowand with dark-green foliage and largewhite flowers. Both the young leaves and the fruit pulp are used for human consumption. The leaves are rich in calciumbut it is questionable to what extent it is available to monogastric animalsas the leaves also contain gums which may impede its absorption. The white fruit pulp has an acid taste (tartaric acids) and surrounds the seedswhich account for about 65% of the weight of the fruit. Seeds from which the lignified skin has been removed are together with the pulp useful as feed. They are fed mainly to goats and sheep.