See the Strange Boab Trees of Africa and Australia
Updated Apr 2022
When we drove to the northwest corner of Australia, we came across a strange tree called the Boab. The Boab tree is found only in Africa and this corner of Australia.
You Can’t Get the Water Out
The tree’s trunk is obese, getting narrow near the top, giving it a bottle-shaped appearance. The trunk’s interior is made of a fibrous substance, not solid wood, like other trees. Myth has it that the trunk is swollen because it is full of water. While it is true that the tree stores water, you cannot simply drill into the trunk and get liquid out. The water is inside the fibrous interior. You would have to cut down the tree and then cut it apart and wring out the fibres to squeeze out the water, like a sponge. A Boab tree can contain up to 100,000 litres (26,000 gallons) of water.
They are Giants
This Boab tree is more than 20 metres in circumference and more than 2,000 years old.
The average size of the Boab is 5 to 30 metres (16 to 98 feet) in height and 7 to 11 metres (23 to 36 feet) in diameter, but some trees grow to gigantic proportions. For example, one in Africa has a diameter of 15.9 metres (52 feet) and a circumference of 47 metres (154 feet). We saw some with a circumference of more than 20 metres.
The Boab produces a fruit, which looks like a small coconut. It is edible but not especially tasty.
Hollow Boab Trees
I took this photo from inside a hollow Boab tree. The tree was still very much alive and still producing fruit.
When a Boab tree reaches old age (about 1,000 years or so), the fibrous interior rots away, and the tree becomes hollow. But just because it is hollow, does not mean that it is dead. The hollow tree above is still alive and still producing fruit. Some Boab trees are so huge that, when they become hollow, humans have used them for shelter, like a cave. One tree in Australia was used as the town jail.
Parking under a Boab tree.