The name Adansoniadigitata was given by Linnaeus, the generic name honouring Michel Adanson who first described Baobab in the eighteenth century at Senegal. Darwin documented baobab trees on the St. Jago in the Cape Verde Islands in 1832 and he commented on their size and longevity.
Adansoniadigitata L. is the most widely spread of the Adansonia species on the African continent which belongs to the family of Bombacaceae a sub family of the Malvaceae. Adansonia species comprise eight different species with large, spectacular, nocturnal flowers. One of these species is the A. digitata L. It occurs throughout the drier parts of Africa. A second species is restricted to North-Western Australia (A. gibbosa) and the remain ing six species are endemic to Madagascar. The African baobab is known by a very large number of local names:
Monkey bread tree, Ethiopian sour gourd, Cream of tartar tree, Senegal calabash fruit, upside-down....
