The tree of life
The African baobab tree is ancient. It has been around for over 200 million years—long before us. It can grow up to 100 feet tall and live for up to 5,000 years. There are more than 300 ways this tree provides sustenance, water, shelter and medicine. And so it is called ‘The Tree of Life’.
The baobab’s branches seem to span out in all directions like roots so it looks like it’s been flipped. Legend says the baobabs were too proud, so the gods became angry and uprooted them and threw them back into the ground upside-down. Indigenous peoples have learned, through centuries, to live harmoniously with these majestic trees, thriving off of their many uses without depleting them.
I leaned today that it is a succulent, so it absorbs and holds water in its trunk. That water sustains the nutrient dense fruit. It is one of the only trees in the world that doesn’t drop its fruit where it would spoil and that fruit has a 3 year shelf life.
https://www.oneearth.org/species-of-the-week-african-baobab-tree/