Adansonia gregorii

Boab near [[Kununurra, WA| thumb]]

The specific name gregorii honours the Australian explorer Augustus Gregory.{{cite web | title=Gregory's Tree | website=Monument Australia | url=https://monumentaustralia.org.au/themes/landscape/exploration/display/80254-gregory%60s-tree- | access-date=12 October 2022}}{{cite web | title=Gregory's Tree, Timber Creek | website=Visit the Northern Territory, Australia | url=https://northernterritory.com/katherine-and-surrounds/see-and-do/gregorys-tree-timber-creek | access-date=12 October 2022}}

The most widely recognised common name is 'boab', which is a shortened form of the generic common name 'boabab'. It does, however, have many other common names, including:

• baobab — the common name for the genus as a whole, but often used in Australia to refer to the Australian species
• Australian baobab{{cite web | title=Adansonia gregorii – Australian Baobab or Bottle Tree seed x5 | website=Ole Lantana’s Seed Store | url=https://www.olelantanaseeds.com.au/product/adansonia-gregorii-australian-baobab-or-bottle-tree-seed-x5/ | access-date=12 October 2022}}
• boabab was in common use from the late 1850s{{cite web|url=https://trove.nla.gov.au/search/category/newspapers?keyword=boabab |title=Trove Newspaper results for "boabab"|publisher=National Library of Australia|access-date=12 October 2022}} (Perhaps the origin of boab)
• baob{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article17695432 |title=A "BOOB" IN A BAOB TREE. |newspaper=The Sydney Morning Herald |date=31 August 1940 |access-date=11 January 2012 |page=9 |publisher=National Library of Australia}}{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article32219910 |title=SOUVENIRS.|newspaper=The West Australian |location=Perth |date=1 September 1928 |access-date=11 January 2012|page=8 |publisher=National Library of Australia}}

Gadawon{{cite web | title=Gadawon | website=TheFreeDictionary.com | url=https://www.thefreedictionary.com/Gadawon | access-date=12 October 2022}} is one of the names used by the local Aboriginal Australian groups. Other names include larrgadi{{cite web | last=Moore | first=Gregory | title=Built like buildings, boab trees are life-savers with a chequered past | website=The Conversation | date=4 August 2022 | url=http://theconversation.com/built-like-buildings-boab-trees-are-life-savers-with-a-chequered-past-118821 | access-date=12 October 2022}} or larrgadiy, which is widespread in the Nyulnyulan languages of the Western Kimberley.{{citation needed|date=October 2022}}

Other names include:

• bottle tree or bottletree
• cream of tartar tree
• gourd-gourd tree{{cite web | title=Adansonia gregorii | website=Australian Tropical Rainforest Plants| url=https://apps.lucidcentral.org/rainforest/text/entities/adansonia_gregorii.htm | access-date=12 October 2022| publisher= CSIRO}}
• gouty stem tree
• monkey bread tree
• sour gourd
• upside down tree{{cite web | title=Tracing history via the Kimberley's "upside down" trees | website=WA Parks Foundation | date=27 January 2021 | url=https://www.ourwaparks.org.au/tracing-history-via-the-kimberleys-upside-down-trees/ | access-date=12 October 2022}}
• dead rat tree

Endemic to Australia, boab occurs in the Kimberley region of Western Australia{{Cite book|title=The cabaret of plants : botany and the imagination|last=Mabey, Richard| year=2015| isbn=978-1-86197-662-8| location=London| pages=69–71| oclc=927291647}} and east into the Northern Territory. It is the only baobab to occur in Australia, the others being native to Madagascar and mainland Africa and the Arabian Peninsula.{{cite web | last=Hunt | first=Melanie | title='Trees of life': Tracing the journey of baobab trees from Australia to Dubai | website=The National | date=2 May 2019 | url=https://www.thenationalnews.com/lifestyle/trees-of-life-tracing-the-journey-of-baobab-trees-from-australia-to-dubai-1.856525 | access-date=12 October 2022}} There are various theories as to how the tree got to Australia, with A. gregorii and A. digitata, its African relative, being very similar genetically.

It can grow from sea level to about {{cvt|300|m}} in altitude, and is most often found in open forest and rocky areas, but is also seen in monsoon forest.

File:Adansonia gregorii 1zz.jpg

As with other baobabs, Adansonia gregorii is easily recognised by the swollen base of its trunk, which forms a massive caudex, giving the tree a bottle-like appearance.

Boab ranges from {{cvt|5-15|m}} in height, usually {{cvt|9-12|m}}, with a broad bottle-shaped trunk,{{FloraBase | name = Adansonia gregorii | id = 4995}} up to {{cvt|5|m}} in diameter.

A. gregorii is deciduous, losing its leaves during the dry winter period and producing new leaves and large white flowers between December and May, up to {{cvt|75|mm}} long. The flowers open at night, and have a calyx about {{cvt|6|cm}} long. The inner surface is densely sericeous.

Boabs are pollinated by the convolvulus hawk-moth Agrius convolvuli.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

The tree's bark has a remarkable property, in that it can maintain inscribed markings for long periods of time, over more than a century. Some specimens of the African relative of boabs have been estimated to live close to 2,000 years, but the Australian ones are not as well-documented.

Boab in [[the Kimberley| thumb]]

The plant has a wide variety of uses; most parts are edible and it is the source of a number of materials. Its medicinal products and the ability to store water through dry seasons has been exploited.{{cite web|url=http://www.uq.edu.au/nuq/jack/Boab%20Origins.html|title=Origins of the Australian Boab (Adansonia gregorii)|last=Vickers|first=Claudia|author2=Jack Pettigrew|publisher=The University of Queensland|access-date=8 October 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100703151540/http://www.uq.edu.au/nuq/jack/Boab%20Origins.html|archive-date=3 July 2010|url-status=dead}} Aboriginal Australians obtained water from the tree, owing to its ability to store huge amounts of water; some of the oldest and largest trees can hold more than {{cvt|100,000|L}} of water in their trunks. They also use the white powder that fills the seed pods (or pith, said to taste like sherbet or cream of tartar) as a food.

Decorative paintings or carvings were sometimes made on the outer surface of the fruit.

The bark and leaves are used medicinally, in particular for digestive ailments.{{Cite news|url=http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-02-07/a-push-for-boab-tree-leaves-to-become-part-of-diet/7146624|title=Could a WA tree help in treating iron deficiency?| date=2016-02-07| work=ABC News|language=en-AU|access-date=2017-02-03}}

The root fibres are used to create string.

The 1889 book Useful Native Plants of Australia states that "The dry acidulous pulp of the fruit is eaten. It has an agreeable taste, like cream of tartar".{{cite book | author=J. H. Maiden | year=1889 | title=The useful native plants of Australia : Including Tasmania | publisher= Turner and Henderson, Sydney | url=https://primo-slnsw.hosted.exlibrisgroup.com/primo-explore/fulldisplay?docid=SLNSW_ALMA21105097830002626&context=L&vid=SLNSW&search_scope=EEA&tab=default_tab&lang=en_US}}

European use of the trees has included letter boxes and jails.

The leaves may see a future use prepared as food, due to their high iron content. The leaves can be boiled and eaten as a spinach; the seeds can be ground and used as a coffee-like beverage, and fermenting the pulp creates a type of beer.

File:Boab Prison Tree.jpg

A large hollow boab south of Derby, Western Australia is reputed to have been used in the 1890s as a lockup for Aboriginal prisoners on their way to Derby for sentencing. The Boab Prison Tree, Derby is now a tourist attraction.[http://www.about-australia.com/travel-guides/western-australia/australias-north-west/attractions/historic-site/boab-prison-tree/ Boab Prison Tree] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110601074548/http://www.about-australia.com/travel-guides/western-australia/australias-north-west/attractions/historic-site/boab-prison-tree/ |date=1 June 2011 }}, About-Australia.com. Retrieved 1 February 2009.

Another hollow boab near Wyndham, Western Australia was also used as a prison tree. The Hillgrove Lockup or Wyndham Prison Tree is on the King River Road out of Wyndham near the Moochalabra Dam.{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article32219910 |title=SOUVENIRS.|newspaper=The West Australian|location=Perth |date=1 September 1928 |access-date=11 January 2012 |page=8 |publisher=National Library of Australia}}{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article23135757 |title=Giant Bottle Trees.|newspaper=The Queenslander |date=26 February 1931 |access-date=11 January 2012 |page=54 |publisher=National Library of Australia}}{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article23135838 |title=THE BAOBAB.|newspaper=The Queenslander |date=26 February 1931 |access-date=11 January 2012|page=29 |publisher=National Library of Australia}}{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article32566446 |title=IN THE FAR NORTH-WEST. |newspaper=The West Australian |location=Perth |date=17 December 1932 |access-date=11 January 2012 |page=5 |publisher=National Library of Australia}} There is also a boab tree located within the Wyndham Caravan Park that is billed as "the biggest boab in captivity".{{cite web | title=Biggest Boab in Captivity, Wyndham WA_0449 | website=Flickr | date=12 October 2022 | url=https://www.flickr.com/photos/photo-expressions/48419507847/ | access-date=12 October 2022}}

Gija Jumulu is a large boab which was transported from Warmun in the Kimberley region to Kings Park in the Western Australian capital city, Perth in 2008. {{as of|2019}} the tree was growing well, after an initial period showing signs of stress after the move, demonstrating the adaptability of the species in a different climate.

Gregory's Tree, in the Gregory's Tree Historical Reserve at Timber Creek, NT, is an Aboriginal sacred site and a registered Australian heritage site. The boab tree marks the site of a camp of the explorer Augustus Charles Gregory, and is inscribed with the dates of his party's arrival and departure, from October 1855 to July 1856.

In 2021, a collaborative project to find and trace histories etched in boab trees in the Kimberley was launched. Funded by the Australian Research Council, archaeologists from the Australian National University (ANU), the University of Western Australia, the University of Canberra, and University of Notre Dame Australia are working with Aboriginal communities and using advanced technology (photogrammetry) to record 3D images of carvings on the trees. It is "the first systematic survey and recording program of carved boab trees in Australia".

In October 2022, the team published the results of their recent survey of such trees in the Tanami Desert.{{cite journal | last1=O'Connor | first1=Sue | last2=Balme | first2=Jane | last3=Frederick | first3=Ursula | last4=Garstone | first4=Brenda | last5=Bedford | first5=Rhys | last6=Bedford | first6=Jodie | last7=Rivers | first7=Anne | last8=Bedford | first8=Angeline | last9=Lewis | first9=Darrell| display-authors=2 | title=Art in the bark: Indigenous carved boab trees (Adansonia gregorii) in north-west Australia | journal=Antiquity | publisher=Antiquity Publications | date=11 October 2022 | volume=96 | issue=390 | issn=0003-598X | doi=10.15184/aqy.2022.129 | pages=1574–1591| doi-access=free }} The survey records the tree markings, also known as dendroglyphs, relating to the Lingka Dreaming track across the desert. Also known as the King Brown Snake dreaming, many of the carvings are of snakes, but also include emu and kangaroo tracks; geometric markings; and, further west, crocodiles, turtles and Wanjina figures. The researchers also found stone artefacts and broken grinding stones, used for grinding seeds, as camps were often made underneath the large shady trees.{{cite web | last=Salleh | first=Anna | title=Race against time to preserve Lingka Dreaming carvings on boab trees in Tanami Desert | publisher= Australian Broadcasting Corporation | website=ABC News | date=11 October 2022 | url=https://www.abc.net.au/news/science/2022-10-12/boab-trees-snake-carvings-indigenous-dreaming-tanami-desert/101521668 | access-date=12 October 2022}}

A boab tree is featured in the 1992 animated film FernGully: The Last Rainforest to imprison the film's antagonist, Hexxus.{{cite web | last=Astell | first=Paul | title=Film Review: FernGully: The Last Rainforest (1992) | website=Feeling Animated | date=7 April 2019 | url=https://feelinganimatedblog.wordpress.com/2019/04/07/film-review-ferngully-the-last-rainforest-1992/ | access-date=12 October 2022}}{{cite web | title=Movie Review Friday: FernGully: The Last Rainforest | website=The Green Life | date=2 April 2009 | url=https://blogs.sierraclub.org/greenlife/2009/04/movie-review-friday-fern-gully.html | access-date=12 October 2022}}

The boab tree is celebrated in the end credits of the 2008 film Australia with the song "By the Boab Tree", a song nominated for a 2008 Satellite Award, with lyrics by Baz Luhrmann and performed by Sydney singer Angela Little.{{cite web | last=Adams | first=Ryan | title=Satellite Award Nominees | website=Awardsdaily | date=30 November 2008 | url=https://www.awardsdaily.com/2008/11/30/satellite-award-nominees/ | access-date=12 October 2022}}

File:Boab, Timber Creek, NT - Melissa Jamcotchian.JPG| Boab in Timber Creek, NT

File:Boab (Adansonia gregorii) - Nitmiluk NT.jpg|Boab in Nitmiluk (Katherine Gorge), NT

File:Boab - Katherine River.jpg|Boab at Katherine River, NT

File:Adansonia gregorii sunset.jpg|Boab tree sunset near Derby, WA

{{Reflist|refs=

[https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.san2sv (26 May 2018) GBIF Occurrence Download Adansonia gregorii F.Muell.]

}}

Works cited

• {{cite book|author=Boland, D. J.|year=1984|title=Forest Trees of Australia|edition=Fourth|publisher=CSIRO Publishing|location=Collingwood, Victoria, Australia|isbn=978-0-643-05423-3|display-authors=etal}}

{{Wikispecies}}

{{Commons category}}

• {{cite news| url=https://www.flickr.com/groups/boab/ |title=Boab (KHS Group Photographic Pool on Flickr)|newspaper=Flickr }} Photographs of the Australian Boab – Adansonia gregorii (Includes photographs of both prison trees).
• {{cite web| url=http://images.slsa.sa.gov.au/prg/900/6/PRG900_6_3.htm |title=Photograph of the Hillgrove Lockup|access-date=11 January 2012|publisher=State Library of South Australia }} Photograph by M.E. McCombe ca.1917-1925.

{{Taxonbar|from=Q159165}}

Category:Flora of the Northern Territory

gregorii

Category:Drought-tolerant trees

Category:Trees of Australia

Category:Caudiciform plants

Category:Fruits originating in Australia

Category:Taxa named by Ferdinand von Mueller