Baobab Tree - Protector of the African Continent Fight Diabetis

By Liliana Usvat
Blog 163-365

Baobab is the common name of a genus of trees (Adansonia). There are eight species, six native to Madagascar, and one each to mainland Africa and Australia.

Viewed by the native population as their symbol of the African Continent and as their Protector, the Baobab is of high importance for humans and animals as it provides them with food and medicine. In traditional African medicine, the Baobab is used to help treat fever, diarrhea, dysentery, malaria, smallpox, and inflammation. 
 
The Baobab Tree is also known as the “Tree of Life”, “The Chemist Tree” and “The Monkey Bread Tree”. The scientific name is Adansonia Digitata. It is a deciduous tree that can reach 30 meters or 90 feet in height and 15 meters or 45 feet in diameter. The swollen, short, bottle shaped trunk can store up to 30,000 gallons of water during the dry season, which serves as water storage for the villages. The Baobab Tree can live up to 5000 years and is protected from fire due to its spongy wood.

Known as 'The Tree of Life', the baobab is an icon of the African savannah; a symbol of life and positivity in a landscape where little else can thrive. The Baobab trees are also known as an upside down bottles or monkey bread trees. 
 
Two magnificent baobab trees (Adansonia digitata) with possibly the widest tree-trunks to be found in the Caribbean grow in Barbados!  The largest can be seen in our Queen's Park in Bridgetown. To give an example of the size of this tree of great distinction, it takes 15 adults joining with outstretched arms to cover its circumference.

This tree is estimated as being over one thousand years old! It is thought that a seed floated from Ginea, West Africa across the Atlantic Ocean to the shores of Barbados and eventually grew into this magnificent tree. 
 
The other grand specimen can be found on the Warrens Road in St.Michael, where the inscription on the wooden plaque reads:  Boabab Tree (Adansonia digitata)

 
 One of the two mature trees in Barbados. This remarkable tree of girth 44.5 ft (13.6m) is believed to have been brought from Guinea, Africa around 1738 making it over 250 years old. Its jug-shaped trunk is ideally suited for storing water, an ideal adaption in the dry savannah
regions of its native Africa.

Another larger Baobab tree of girth 51.5 ft (18.5m) is located in Queen's Park, Bridgetown. 
 
Fairchild Tropical Botanical Garden in Miami has a Baobab tree. Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden is a 83-acre (34 ha) botanic garden, with extensive collections of rare tropical plants including palms, cycads, flowering trees and vines. It is located in metropolitan Miami, just south of Coral Gables, Florida, United States.

Currently, Fairchild supports some 22,800 catalogued plants that comprise more than 3,400 species—a phenomenal increase from the 1939 inventory of 692 plants and 243 species. Fairchild’s palm and cycad collection are among the greatest in the world.

Stories about Baobab
 
The folklore surrounding these trees are truly amazing, one tale tells of God accidentally planting the tree upside down, there fore when a Baobab tree dies it spontaneously catches fire, apparently the event of a baobab tree catching fire has some credible witnesses, that describes this as a wondrous and completely unbelievable thing to witness.

Uses

• The leaves are used as condiments and medicines. The fruit, called "monkey bread", is edible, and full of Vitamin C. The fruit has a velvety shell and is about the size of a coconut, weighing about 1.44 kilograms (3.2 lb). It has a somewhat acidic flavour, described as 'somewhere between grapefruit, pear, and vanilla'
•  The tree bears fruit once a year, which is harvested by the local population. The fruit contains naturally dehydrated fruit pulp, which is then mechanically separated from the fiber and seeds. The leaves and seeds provide botanical extracts used in a variety of industries. The seed endocarp has naturally occurring Omega 3, 6 and 9. 

• The tree can store hundreds of litres of water, which is an adaptation to the harsh drought conditions of its environment. The tree may be tapped in dry periods.
• These seed are considered refreshing to suck and when boiled or soaked in water they make a refreshing lemony flavored drink. 
• Some natives believe that drinking the water that the seeds were soaked in would protect them from crocodiles.

 
Medicinal Uses

Baobab tree is also known as the “Tree of Life” due to its nutrition facts. New reports have shown that the ingredients in African baobab tree and its fruit cover vitamins and nutrients including riboflavin, niacin and vitamins C, A, D and E. This makes baobab enjoy a high reputation for its benefits.
 
In traditional African medicine, baobab fruit is used to treat a number of illnesses including

• asthma - the leave is boiled and the water that is left after the boiling is done can be taken is small dosages to cure asthma, coughs and other chest related ailments
•  fever, 
• diarrhea, 
• malaria and 
• smallpox. 
• In addition, practitioners of traditional African medicine often use baobab fruit to curb inflammation.

Baobab fruit can

• help slow the aging process and
•  protect against major illnesses like heart disease and 
• cancer. 
• diabet Prized in Africa for centuries for its health-boosting properties, the fruit from the ancient baobab tree is an extremely rich source of polyphenals, known to be beneficial in reducing the glycaemic response - the rate at which sugar is released into the bloodstream. 

 

• The Baobab Essence has been very useful for pain, for example back pain or pain caused by arthritis, again having almost instantaneous results.
• The flower essence also help to heal flesh wounds. 
• Many people have reported that the Baobab has good (miraculous in a few cases) effects in pain, especially for the back and related to arthritis.
• The edible oil in baobab can also be applied to the skin for beauty purposes.
• The residue that remains after processing oil is mixed with coconut oil and used for making soap.  the soap helps to fight skin diseases, such as acne, sunburn, eczema and rashes.  

• Baobab fruits are vital to encourage probiotic organisms to survive and thrive in the human gut. The soluble fiber, being a non-digestible food ingredient, stimulates the growth and activity of bacteria in the digestive system, which are beneficial to the health of the body.
• Rich in iron, high in potassium and containing vital blood clotting ingredients it can even help support the circulatory system whilst the high-fibre content benefits the digestive system

Life Span

The trees are long-lived, but just how long is disputed. The owners of Sunland Farm in Limpopo, South Africa have built a pub called "The Big Baobab Pub" inside the hollow trunk of the 22 metres (72 ft) high tree. The tree is 47 m (155 ft) in circumference, and is said to have been carbon dated at over 6,000 years old.

Propagation from Seeds

Typically soaking baobab seed in hot water for 24 hour. After they have been soaked they will then need to be dried for another day or so before planting. The germination rate for baobab seeds can be low, slow and sporadic so sow two to three times the amount of seed required to ensure you get enough stock. Be aware that it can take 3-4 months from your first Baobab seedling to germinate until your last one pokes its head above the compost.

It is imperative that you use a very well-drained growing medium. You can use a standard seed compost - such as John Innes 'Seed and Cutting' but you will need to mix in an equal part of horticultural grit or perlite to improve the drainage further.


In order to germinate the baobab seeds the soil temperature will need to be kept at between 15 and 19 degrees Celsius, so unless you are blessed with these temperature naturally you will need to keep your compost - presumably held in a seed tray - in a heated propagator.

Planting seed approximately 1/2 in. deep in the compost and water well using warm water. The seeds can now be moved to a sunny position. Considering the baobabs natural environment, they will need as much light as possible.

Make sure that winter temperatures do not drop below 10 degrees Celsius. If this is likely then the Baobab will need to be brought in under temperature controlled protection such as the sunniest room in the house or a heated greenhouse.

Parks and Conservation Ares

By Liliana Usvat

Blog 162 -365

Wetlands control flooding, reduce erosion, purify our water and provide food and homes for fish, birds and wildlife.

Here are some wild life that you can see in Ontario while walking at a small distance from populated areas.

 

 Trumpet Swan

 Their breeding habitat is large shallow ponds, undisturbed lakes, pristine wetlands and wide slow rivers, and marshes in northwestern and central North America, with the largest numbers of breeding pairs found in Alaska. They come in the summer close to my house.

They prefer nesting sites with enough space for them to have enough surface water for them to take off, as well as accessible food, shallow, unpolluted water, and little or no human disturbance.

The Trumpeter Swan is the largest extant species of waterfowl. Adults usually measure 138–165 cm (54–65 in) long, though large males can range up to 180 cm (71 in) or more. 

Great Blue Heron
The Great Blue Heron (Ardea herodias) is a large wading bird in the heron family Ardeidae, common near the shores of open water and in wetlands over most of North America.

Notable features of Great Blue Herons include slaty flight feathers, red-brown thighs, and a paired red-brown and black stripe up the flanks; the neck is rusty-gray, with black and white streaking down the front; the head is paler, with a nearly white face, and a pair of black plumes running from just above the eye to the back of the head. 

The primary food for Great Blue Heron is small fish, though it is also known to opportunistically feed on a wide range of shrimp, crabs, aquatic insects, rodents and other small mammals, amphibians, reptiles, and small birds. Primary prey is variable based on availability and abundance.

This species usually breeds in colonies, in trees close to lakes or other wetlands. Adults generally return to the colony site after winter from December (in warmer climes such as California and Florida) to March (in cooler areas such as Canada). Usually colonies include only Great Blue Herons though sometimes they nest alongside other species of herons.

 Canadian Goose

The ubiquitous Canada goose is one of the best known birds in North America. It is found in every contiguous U.S. state and Canadian province at one time of the year or another. Canada geese are adaptable to many habitats.

 Trumpet Swan - this bird is at Makenzie Marsh in Aurora Ontario Canada.
Two years ago there were 2 birds last year 2013 we were visited by 5 birds. There is a real show to see them on the lake people are coming and taking picture of them the kids are watching and sometime feeding them with bread.

These birds feed while swimming, sometimes up-ending or dabbling to reach submerged food. The diet is almost entirely aquatic plants. They will eat both the leaves and stems of submerged and emergent vegetation. They will also dig into muddy substrate underwater to extract roots and tubers. In winter, they may also eat grasses and grains in fields.

In the 19th and early 20th centuries, the Trumpeter Swan was hunted heavily, both as game and a source of feathers. This species is also unusually sensitive to lead poisoning while young. These birds once bred in North America from northwestern Indiana west to Oregon in the U.S., and in Canada from James Bay to the Yukon, and they migrated as far south as Texas and southern California. The trumpeter was rare or extinct in most of the United States by the early twentieth century. Many thousands survived in the core range in Canada and Alaska, however, where populations have since rebounded.

 Turtles - these are small turtles that are taking a sun bath. They allow people to take picture of them. When scared they hide in the water.

 Ducks

 Turtle and ducks

Beaver The beaver (genus Castor) is a primarily nocturnal, large, semi-aquatic rodent. They are the second-largest rodent in the world.Beavers are known for their natural trait of building dams on rivers and streams, and building their homes (known as "lodges") in the resulting pond.

The above pictures were taken in 30 minutes at noon. The Park restoration projects in Ontario created a healthy environment for these wild birds and animals to live in the proximity of the populated areas. The existence of them show that the water is clean and the air is not polluted. A lot of people take picture of these birds and animals while taking a walk in Aurora Ontario Canada.

Provincial parks and conservation reserves support the economy by boosting tourism. They are also important for scientific research, environmental monitoring and outdoor education.  Most importantly, they ensure that future generations will enjoy and benefit from the province’s rich natural and cultural heritage.

Liliana Usvat: Slippery Elm has Been Used as Herbal Remedy by Native Americans

Liliana Usvat: Slippery Elm has Been Used as Herbal Remedy by Native Americans