Adansonia Perrieri. Perrier’s Baobab.
The Adansonia Perrieri is one of the most rare of Madagascar’s six species of Baobabs. Classed as endangered recent assessments have shown it should be re-classified as critically endangered due to deforestation and seed predation by rats. These amazing trees have a massive cylindrical trunk used for storing water can be up to 3m in diameter is covered with a smooth reddish-grey bark which protects it from bush fires. In habitat the large flat topped irregular crowns come into leaf in the wet season and bear bluish-green spirally arranged palmate leaves between October and May followed by spectacular pale yellow to yellow-orange flowers which open in the evening. The large fruits up to 25cm long are ripe between November and December and contain an edible pulp high in vitamin C. Easy to grow it makes a very unique houseplant in the UK when young, which also can be trained as a Bonsai.