Tags: Video's Baobab

Tags: Video's Baobab

学術的に見ると…

バオバブは、キワタ科（bombacaceae）Adansonia 属の樹木です。アフリカ、マダガスカル、オーストラリアに約９種があり、そのうち６～７種がマダガスカルに特有の種類です。マダガスカル最大の樹は幹が直径７ｍ、樹高３０ｍ、樹齢５００年以上に達すると推定されます。学名のAdansonia は、この木の発見者のフランス人植物学者 M.Adanson にちなんでいます。

バオバブは、キワタ科（bombacaceae）Adansonia

マダガスカルってどんなところ？

アフリカ大陸の東のインド洋に浮かぶ世界第４の大きな島で、独特な動植物で知られています。ここの住民は、1500年ほど前に東南アジアから移り住んだ人々の子孫と言われており、人口約1200万人の独立国です。米を主食とし、水田のある風景は“アフリカの中のアジア”という表現がピッタリです。

バオバブの木は何かの役に立つの？

バオバブの木は、その姿が人を感動させるだけでなく、とても役に立つ木です。果実の中の甘酸っぱいパルプ質の果肉がお菓子や清涼飲料水に、堅い果実の殻は容器に利用されます。マダガスカルでは地方によって種子から油を採り、樹皮を家の屋根や壁に用いたりロープの材料や薬にします。アフリカでは葉を乾燥して粉にし、野菜のない季節の保存食品とします。変わった使い方として、生きた木の幹をくりぬいて貯水タンクにしたり（マダガスカル南東部）、自然にできた木のウロをお墓（アフリカ）や、牢屋（オーストラリア）にする例があります。

バオバブの木はなぜ絶滅の心配があるの？

バオバブはもともと森の中に生える木です。放牧地の開発などで森が焼き払われた時、火に強いバオバブの木は生き残り、草原にバオバブだけがそびえ立つ景色となります。その景色はすばらしく、感動的でさえあるのですが、このような草原では種子が稔っても若木が育つことはなくなり、老木が死に絶えると絶滅することになるのです。マダガスカルでは今、このような状況がどんどん進行しています。

どんな方法でバオバブの木を保護するの？

バオバブの木を保護するには、バオバブが生える森をそっくり保護するのが一番です。しかし、すでに森が荒れている所も多いのが現状です。そのような場所では森を復元し、そこにバオバブの苗木を植えてゆくことが望まれます。森の中なら、やがて植えたバオバブが大きくなって果実を稔らせ、その種子からまた新しい若木が育っていくことが期待できるのです。

「バオバブの木 里親」基金とは、どのような基金ですか？

マダガスカル南部で取り組んでいる活動は、失われ行く貴重な森とそこに生きる動植物を、森の恵みで生活する人たち自身の力で守ってゆくことを目指しています。この基金は、バオバブの苗木の里親となられる方々からの募金を、現地育苗センターへの整備、荒れ果てた森を元に戻すための苗木作りと植え込み、森とその資源を守るための子供たちへの教育、地元住民の生活環境の改善、自然観察ガイド養成と貴重な動植物の保護などに役立たせていただこうとする資金です。

里親にはどのような役割や特典があるのですか？

* お申し込みとご送金次第、本会本部と現地事務所に里親として登録し、本部より領収書と関係資料をお送りします。また、現地に植え込んだ苗が活着したことが確認された後に、現地から感謝状が送付されます。
* 里親に代わり、現地スタッフが種子から育てたバオバブの苗木を募金一口につき１本、現地の自然林復元予定地に植え込みます。
* 現地に行きバオバブの苗をご自分で記念植樹することもできますので、その際は本会本部にご連絡ください。旅費その他の経費はご自分の負担となります。
* 現地に設置した記念碑の芳名板に、里親のお名前を刻みます。
* 植えられた苗木の世話は、里親に代わって現地スタッフが行ないます。
* バオバブの現地産種子と「育て方の手引き」をお送りします。記念として残されるのも、播いて苗木をお育てになるのもご自由です。なお、ご自分で育てられたバオバブの苗木を国内で記念植樹ご希望の場合は、本会本部にご相談ください。

里親に期限はあるのですか？

マダガスカルの自然と「バオバブの木」を愛するかぎり、里親として資格に期限はありません。 　バオバブの寿命は数百年から数千年以上と言われ、親の資格はバオバブと共に生き続けます。本会は、少なくとも活動地の森が「自然林保全モデル地区」としてマダガスカル政府の指定を受け、皆様のバオバブの木が末長く育ち続ける環境が整うまで活動を続けます。

Tags: Botanic of the Baobab tree, バオバブ, バオバブは、キワタ科（bombacaceae）Adansonia

2009年3月14日より、渋谷シアター･イメージフォーラム、ポレポレ東中野にて一 斉ロードショー！

バオバブに聞いてみたい。
バオバブの記憶にある風景のことを。
そして、百年、五百年、千年後のぼくらのことを。
Category:  Film & Animation
Tags:
本橋成一  橋爪功  トベタ・バジュン  石紀美子  一之瀬正史  弦巻裕  村本勝  バオバブ  Baobab  Adansonia  サスナフィルム  ポレポレタイムス社  シアター･イメージフォーラム  ポレポレ東中野  イメージフォーラム  イメフォ  セネガル  アフリカ  Africa  Senegal

Tags: Video's Baobab

If you travel in the remote deserts of Australia, Africa or Madagascar, you may from time to time spot a solitary tree that looks as if it is growing upside-down, with gnarled roots sitting atop a huge, smooth, trunk.

It is well worth taking a closer look at this oddity, which is one of the oldest and strangest living things on our planet. In keeping with its unusual characteristics, it has a weird-sounding name – the baobab, which is probably derived from a native African language.

It is perhaps an exaggeration to say that baobabs are beautiful. Indeed, many people’s first reaction is to giggle at their strange shapes and proportions. With their massive trunks, crooked branches and furry fruit, baobabs have learned how to adapt to a dry and hostile environment – a capacity we may come to envy as the planet starts to heat up.

Though they rarely exceed 20 metres in height, it is not unusual for the circumference of their trunks to be as much or more: it can often take more than ten people with outstretched arms to circle one tree.

They have no branches on the lower part of their smooth, silvery trunks, making them difficult to climb. Instead a spray of twisted boughs sprouts from the top of the trunk, looking like the unkempt hair of a cartoon character.

Baobabs belong to the genus Adansonia and the family Bombacaceae. There are eight different species in the world, of which six can be found in Madagascar. Three of the most common species grow on the west coast of the island: the fony, the grandidieri, and the za. These names are derived from their physical characteristics, which are bottle shaped, flat-topped or upside-down respectively.

The fony is indeed shaped like a bottle with straight sides tapering at the top. The grandieri, which is usually larger than the fony, spreads its branches at an even height. The za, perhaps the most bizarre of all, looks to all intents and purposes like a tree that has grown upside-down with its roots wriggling about in the air.

The secret of the baobab’s success in surviving in harsh environments and the reason for its massive trunk is that it has little wood fibre but a large water storage capacity. Each tree can hold up to 300 litres of water, enabling it to live through long periods without rain. Their life-cycle is as impressive as their bulk – most live over 500 years and some specimens in Africa are believed to be up to 5000 years old.

Since most baobabs grow in isolation and are susceptible to strong winds, they have deep-penetrating roots that allow them to withstand even the wrath of cyclones. They produce leaves for only a short time during the rainy season, when they also develop huge pink or white flowers.

The trees are pollinated by bats and have a fruit as unique as the tree itself. It has a furry coating around a tough, gourd-like shell that shields a soft pulp inside called ‘monkey bread’ and seeds that are rich in citric acid and oil.

The shape of the fruit may be round or oval, giving it the appearance of a leftover decoration on an abandoned Christmas tree. Yet this fruit is so desirable that Madagascan villagers often punch holes in the tree trunk to climb up to them if the tree is too tall for the fruit to be knocked off from the ground.

As with most trees, the baobab is exploited by man. Apart from consuming its nutritious fruit, people use its leaves for medicine and its bark for cloth and rope. While the wood is too soft for building houses or furniture, it can be used to make paper.

The hollowed-out trunks of dead trees have also been used as prisons, toilets and even as tombs. In some parts of Africa, people believe that poets and musicians are possessed by the devil, and that their bodies will pollute the earth if given a normal burial. Thus they are consigned to the bowels of a baobab.
Baobab legends

The importance and uniqueness of baobabs to the communities living in barren areas has guaranteed them a major role in the world of myths and legends. Just outside Morondava, on the west coast of Madagascar, an enormous specimen called ‘the sacred baobab’ is believed to have sprouted on the exact spot where a princess died about 800 years ago. It is now surrounded by dense growth and only its crown is visible above the thicket.

A little further up the coast, two baobabs nicknamed ‘the lovers’ are entwined around each other in an embrace that has lasted over 600 years. However, the most popular place for baobab spotters is ‘Baobab Alley’, twenty bumpy kilometres north of Morondava.

Baobabs are usually solitary beings, standing tall and proud in the midst of empty spaces. Yet in Baobab Alley, they cluster together forming an avenue of towering columns that border the dirt road, their tortured and twisted tops reflected in the lily-covered pond at the roadside.

The best time to visit these gentle giants is at twilight, when their stark silhouettes form a spectacular contrast to the soft, calming colours of sunset. As the colour fades and lens covers are replaced on cameras, a small group of admirers shuffle reverently away, speaking in hushed tones about this mute yet extremely expressive form of life.

by  www.ronemmons.com

Tags: Botanic of the Baobab tree

Baobab Fruit Company Senegal.
The harvesting trip inside Villages near Tambacounda (Senegal), and the working of Baobab Fruit pods

Tags: Video's Baobab

In a walking tour of Planet Baobab(accommodation). There are lots of Baobab trees around here between Nata and Gueta village in Botswana.

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baobab trees lining the dirt road between Morondava and Belon’i Tsiribihina in the Menabe region in western Madagascar.Along the Avenue are about a dozen trees about 30 meters in height

Tags: Video's Baobab

Boabab tree thriving in its new environment in Kings Park Perth Western Australia- A section of this park has been in a fire a week ago! Relacionado con el palo borracho de Argentina!

Tags: Video's Baobab

Elephant & Baobab Painting

Tags: Video's Baobab

BAOBAB: Si queremos descubrir uno de los árboles más curiosos del planeta, no podemos dejar de echar un vistazo al baobab o adansonia. Procedente de África, no destaca por la belleza de su follaje ni por la vistosidad y aroma de sus flores y frutos; más bien, carece de todo esto, y ahí radica su encanto. Con un aspecto casi prehistórico, aunque no alcanza las dimensiones de una secuoya gigante, lo cierto es que a su lado, cualquiera se siente pequeño.

El baobab es una especie muy útil para los pueblos africanos. Da un fruto llamado pan de mono, del tamaño de un pequeño melón (Dcha.) que contiene gran cantidad de vitamina C, se emplea para preparar varias bebidas refrescantes. De la corteza del baobab se extrae una fibra con la que se fabrican cuerdas y cestos. Las hojas hervidas sirven como alimento, e incluso el polen mojado se emplea como pegamento.

Tags: Video's Baobab

バオバブの風景 Baobab

Tags: Video's Baobab

Madagascar is unlike any place else on Earth. It has been separated from other land masses for almost a hundred million years. As a result, evolution there has proceeded along a separate track from any other region. The vast majority of plants and animals you will find in Madagascar are unlike anything you may have seen before. In western Madagascar, the Alley of Baobabs is one of those unique landscapes. The Alley is a major regional tourism draw. While tourists spend thousands of dollars on plane tickets, hotels and tours to get there, the people on whose land this marvel exists get nothing. In order to survive, local communities are raising water levels to expand rice paddies that increase the stress on the baobabs. Funded by USAID, Conservation International and the Malagasy NGO Fanamby are working to reverse this situation. They are developing a project to improve the competitiveness among small businesses involved in the tourism supply chain. This video invites you to learn more about the ecotourism project and to cooperate with the conservation efforts to save this natural treasure.

Tags: Video's Baobab

Diaporama musical du récit d’un superbe voyage dans cette grande ile magnifique qu’est MADAGASCAR The story of a beautiful travel in Madagascar

Tags: Video's Baobab

600-700 Old Trees in Baobab Avenue Containing Eight Species of trees Native to Madagascar

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Huge Baobab tree

Tags: Video's Baobab

A fallen Baobab in Thiès Senegal

Tags: Video's Baobab

Árvore africana ao som de uma marrabenta

Tags: Video's Baobab

Massive Baobab Tree

Tags: Video's Baobab

Tags: Video's Baobab