Southern Africa’s ancient baobabs are dying
‘It is definitely shocking and dramatic to experience during our lifetime the demise of so many trees with millennial ages’
Baobabs are dying across Southern Africa‚ and climate change may be to blame. Some of the oldest and largest baobabs in SA, Zimbabwe‚ Namibia‚ Botswana and Zambia have died abruptly in the past decade‚ says a team of international researchers. "Nine of the 13 oldest … have died‚ or at least their oldest parts/stems have collapsed and died‚ over the past 12 years‚" they wrote in the scientific journal Nature Plants‚ calling it "an event of an unprecedented magnitude". The trees‚ aged between 1‚100 and 2‚500 years‚ may have fallen victim to climate change‚ says a team that includes Stephan Woodborne from iThemba Labs in Johannesburg and Grant Hall from the University of Pretoria. Study leader Adrian Patrut‚ from Babes-Bolyai University in Romania‚ says: "It is definitely shocking and dramatic to experience during our lifetime the demise of so many trees with millennial ages." While the cause of the deaths is unknown‚ the researchers "suspect that the demise of monumental baobabs may b...
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