Mannar Island ancient Baobab (Adansonia digitata): Arab maritime trade and cambial water storage?
What cambial cellular storage and bark regeneration properties have preserved 700-year-old African baobab trees across the arid scrublands of Mannar?
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3 Answers from travellers
The colossal baobab trees (Adansonia digitata / Ali Gaha) thriving on Mannar Island—notably the ancient Pallimunai specimen with a circumference exceeding 19 meters—were introduced by Arab maritime merchants in the 14th century to provide camel fodder and acidic fruit rations. Adapted to arid climates receiving under 900mm annual rainfall, the swollen trunk consists of unlignified, parenchymatous wood tissue that acts as a water storage reservoir, holding up to 100,000 liters of water. The spongy vascular cambium possesses extraordinary regenerative capacity, rapidly healing deep bark abrasions and withstanding extended dry-zone droughts.
The trees flower nocturnally between June and August, producing large, pendulous white blossoms pollinated by fruit bats and nocturnal sphingid hawkmoths.
The Pallimunai baobab is legally protected as an archaeological and natural monument under the Department of Archaeology to prevent tourist vandalism.
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