The remarkable baobab / Thomas Pakenham.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Pakenham, Thomas, 1933-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Adansonia digitata.

Adansonia gregorii.

Adansonia digitata--Folklore.

Adansonia gregorii--Folklore.

Folklore.

Adansonia digitata--History.

Adansonia gregorii--History.

History.

Physical Description:

142 pages : color illustrations ; 23 cm

Edition:

First American edition.

Place of Publication:

New York : Norton, 2004.

Summary:

Acclaimed historian Thomas Pakenham-who has dramatized in photographs and words the sheer majesty of trees throughout the world-now trains his lens on the most mysterious of trees, the baobab, with spectacular results. His search for the world's most striking baobabs has led him over the last eight years on a trail from sub-Saharan Africa to Madagascar and Australia, the Caribbean, and the United States. Here, in The Remarkable Baobab, Pakenham records his personal encounters with these mysterious giants, tracing their mythologies, their natural grandeur, and their origins, as well as their chances of survival in an uncertain environment. As Pakenham notes, the baobab may indeed be one of the oldest life forms on the planet, and many of the specimens still standing today have been alive for well over a thousand years. Standing tall on the savannahs of Africa and the sunburned plains of Australia, they are tremendous in size and have provided food, medicine, and places of refuge and worship to many, even serving as prisons, tombs, and ossuaries on occasion. Over the last one thousand years they have gained mythical status among many peoples, due in no small part to their appearance-without leaves, the branches of the trees look like roots growing into the sky. The Remarkable Baobab also includes a special section devoted to two famous baobabs in North America-one which is now over twenty feet in girth and is planted on a private Florida estate, the other a breathtaking specimen on the campus of the University of Arizona that was brought to the United States by smugglers. These stories are but two examples provided by Thomas Pakenham in The Remarkable Baobab, a book that is as visually bewitching as the baobab itself.

Contents:

Introduction: The Wooden Elephant 6

1 They Sailed From Here: Baobabs of Madagascar 18

2 The Upside Down Tree: Baobabs of Africa 46

3 Wizards of oz: Boabs of Australia 104

4 In Captivity: Baobabs of the Caribbean 122

Distribution of Baobabs 139.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (page 137) and index.

ISBN:

0393059898 :

OCLC:

56844554