I Like to Live it, Live it: Physics Behind the Long-Living Baobab

Keywords: baobab (Adansonia), drought resistance, thermal mass, longevity, mechanics, structural adaptation, taproot development, water storage

Abstract

Adansonia, or baobab, is a tree genus native to many lands. Its iconic structure, one with a huge trunk and small branches, is very recognizable. In recent days, the baobab has grown in popularity for its food derivatives that have been promoted for health benefits. It has also been called the tree of life by some. However, this nickname does not come from the health benefits of eating it, but rather from the immense lifespan that these trees have. Individuals of this genus have a remarkable longevity, which is surprising, as in the arid climate where these trees reside, many other species struggle. So how does Adansonia accomplish this impressive feat? Here, the focus will be on the mechanics of the tree. The composition of the trunk, the structural integrity of the wood, its sapling development, and its interesting leaf cycle are all design elements which allow the tree to flourish in harsh environments. By examining these adaptations, the hope is to uncover their secrets to long life and draw inspiration for future design solutions.

Introduction

Fig. 1. Baobab, near Morondava, Madagascar (Gagnon, 2020).

In the legendary movie Madagascar, the iconic scene where King Julien sings his rendition of “I like to move it, move it” takes place at the feet of a majestic baobab tree (for a refresher on the scene in question, see Movieclips in references). Visually, the tree itself has been likened to an upside-down tree because of its huge trunk and small branches, which give them the appearance of roots in the air. Whilst in real life, ringed-tailed lemurs are not known to throw parties and sing songs gathered around baobabs, the cultural and societal significance of these trees is hard to overstate.

Baobab, or Adansonia, is a genus which contains 9 species of trees (Petruzzello, 2025). Most species are native to the island nation of Madagascar, and a few are native to Africa, northwestern Australia, and the Arabian Peninsula (Petruzzello, 2025). The distribution of baobabs has long been a subject of scientific curiosity. However, due to the absence of a fossil record, it has been challenging for researchers to pinpoint the geographic origin of the genus (Wan et al., 2024). Some believe the most likely location is Madagascar (Wan et al., 2024), where the last common ancestor is thought to have arisen around 21 million years ago (Nuwer, 2024).

Beyond its phylogeny, the tree is extensively used by humans, with nearly every part serving a purpose. In the arid regions where it grows, resources are scarce, so all possible uses of the tree are carefully exploited. There have been over 300 documented uses for the tree (Kamatou et al., 2011). Its bark can be woven into rope and cloth, and its hollow trunks can be burial sites and temporary shelters (Petruzzello, 2025). In regions of Africa, the tree is used by the indigenous people for food, fibre, and medicine (Lisao et al., 2017). Indigenous populations use the tree to treat ailments such as diarrhea, malaria and microbial infections (Kamatou et al., 2011). Moreover, the baobab fruit has been praised for its high content of vitamins, especially vitamin C, fibre, and antioxidants (Ajmera, 2023). Overall, many people have grown to depend on this tree for various reasons, and the baobab has established itself as a staple of the ecosystem wherever it lives.

However, the most notable characteristic of the baobab is its immense lifespan. While some say the trees can live up to 5000 years, more accurate methods of finding the lifespan of the trees have been implemented recently. Radiocarbon dating of samples shows that the oldest specimens lived around 1275 ± 50 years (Patrut et al., 2007). While this is less than the above-mentioned 5000 years, it is still an enormous amount of time. To put this number into perspective, you could watch the Madagascar movie under a baobab 7,950,581 times and still be sitting next to the same tree. Because of its lifespan, the baobab has been nicknamed the tree of life. It is also precisely this fact that will be at the core of the paper and the following ones. Its longevity can be understood from many different perspectives, whether it be chemical or mechanical. For now, we will focus on the physics of the tree…(see Boabab Chemistry)

Architectural Secrets of the Baobab: How Structure Drives Longevity

As mentioned above, the baobab tree has an extremely long lifespan. It makes you wonder, what components of the tree allow it to live so long? One of the reasons why is owed to the tree’s remarkable structural design. Through its unique geometric shape, fused stems, and low elastic modulus, the baobab can manage the stress from its enormous structure and environmental factors to resist collapsing.

Low Elastic Modulus

At first glance, the baobab tree's materials seem to lead to the conclusion that its life should be shorter. Its wood is soft, porous and far less dense than that of most long-living trees. These properties are expected to limit its durability. Its wood density is extremely low compared to other trees, with a value between 0.09-0.17 g/cm³. The baobab wood is also very soft, with its elastic modulus (the measure of stiffness) being very low. Equation 1 demonstrates that for a low E, the same stress gives much more strain. This means that the baobab tree experiences much more strain than other trees, even if they are in the same conditions. On top of all this, the baobab trees store lots of water, and as water contents rise, the elastic modulus gets even lower. Wet tissues are less stiff than dry tissues, which results in the elastic modulus of baobab trees being around 0.5-2 GPa compared to typical hardwoods that are around 8-15 GPa (Chapotin et al., 2006c).

The baobab’s unusually low elastic modulus, combined with its soft, porous, water-filled tissues allows for it to be much more flexible than most long-lived hardwoods. While this might seem like a weakness, the high strain tolerance allows the tree to bend, deform, and absorb environmental stresses without breaking.

Fused Stems

A major component of this tree are the fused stems. Stem fusion in baobabs occurs when multiple stems sprout from the root system and gradually merge as they grow. This then creates the unique cavity of the baobab tree as the trunk is composed of several fused stems that form a ring-like structure, as seen in Figure 2.

Fig. 2. Top view of the tall false inner cavity of Lebombo baobab, which is defined by five fused stems (Patrut et al., 2015).

Unlike most other trees, this false cavity is created from the natural merging of living tissues rather than the result of decay and is to the advantage of the tree's structural integrity (Zielinski, 2015). The ring shape created by the fused stems, demonstrated in Figure 3, increases the rigidity and the moment of inertia because more of the structure’s mass sits farther from the center, thereby improving its resistance to bending and environmental forces (Chapotin et al., 2006c).

Fig. 3. Cross-section of the Lebombo baobab showing the false cavity and the large cross-sectional area (Patrut et al., 2015).

Thickness of Stems

In addition to the baobab forming a hollow center, it is known to grow very thick stems. These stems have a very large cross-sectional area, increasing the moment of inertia, which compensates for weak material and helps the tree gain stability despite low stiffness.

To compare the structural integrity of a single-stem tree with that of a fused, multi-stem (hollow) tree such as the baobab, researchers examine the second moment of area (I), which describes how the cross-sectional area is distributed relative to the neutral axis , as shown in Equation 2. The larger I is, the more resistant the shape is to bending.

Representing the second moment of area for a solid circle of radius r. The formula for a fused multi-stem (hollow) tree is represented by Equation 3.

where the second moment of area is a hollow circular ring. This ring-like structure is mirrored in the growth of the baobab; as Equation 3 shows, for the same volume of wood, a ring can have a much higher I than a solid shape. Hollow tubes are also more efficient as material far from the center will contribute more to the stiffness than the material closer. This shows that the baobab can maximize its stiffness for a given mass despite having soft wood and being rich in water (Chapotin et al., 2006c).

How Baobabs Keep Their Cool

Baobab trees, as mentioned, exist in some of the hottest and driest regions of the world where high daytime temperatures, seasonal droughts, and frequent wildfires are common (Chapotin et al., 2006c). Their survival in these harsh conditions is made possible by the way they are built and the strategies they employ.

Porosity and Density

Heat moves through a baobab tree by several pathways, each shaping how energy circulates between the environment and the trunk. One is conduction, the direct transfer of heat through solid material. When the bark surface warms under sunlight, this energy begins to move inward through the bark and wood.

For clarity, a tree trunk is generally organized into several layers as seen in Figure 4: the outer bark, the sapwood, the cambium and the heart wood. The outer bark protects the tree, the sapwood transports water, the cambium produces new growth, and the inner wood provides structural support (U.S. Forest Service, n.d.).

Fig. 4. The organizational layers of a tree trunk including the bark, cambium, heartwood and growth rings (U.S. Forest Service, n.d.).

In baobabs, the inward transfer of heat is slowed because the wood is highly porous. Much of the tissue is made up of parenchyma, a soft plant cellular tissue that stores water and fills space between structural fibres. Parenchyma content in the baobab reaches up to 88% and with density of the baobab ranging from about 0.13 to 0.18 g cm⁻³ (Chapotin et al., 2006c).

Attributable to baobab wood and bark being composed primarily of water and air, with only a small solid fraction, their structure has a strong insulating effect (Chapotin et al., 2006c). For example, as seen in Figure 5, the solid fraction of the bark is relatively low (0.13–0.22), and in the outer 35 cm of wood, it drops even further (0.05–0.12). In contrast, the water fraction is very high, around 0.71–0.79 in the outer sapwood and still 0.57–0.70 deeper in the stem (Chapotin et al., 2006c). These values demonstrate the extreme porosity of the tissue. This combination acts like a sponge, creating a low-density structure that both stores thermal mass, through water, and disrupts heat transfer, through air pockets. As a result, conduction inward is slowed, keeping the inner stem cooler even under vigorous surface heating.

Fig. 5. Proportions of solid material, water, and air in the bark and at eight depths within the stem wood (measured in centimeters from the cambium) for six Adansonia species demonstrating the baobabs tissue’s extreme porosity (Chapotin et al., 2006c).

Responses to Heat and Drought

Baobabs employ a series of tactics to cope with extreme heat and prolonged drought, most of which center on controlling transpiration, the process by which water vapor escapes from leaves through small pores called stomata. While transpiration helps cool the tree by absorbing heat as water evaporates, similar to sweating in animals, it also risks excessive water loss in the hot, dry climates where baobabs grow (Chapotin et al., 2006b).

In tropical environments where the baobab resides, high temperatures and intense solar radiation place extreme stress on water balance (Eamus, 1999; Chapotin et al., 2006b). Even when plenty of water is stored in the stem, leaves may transpire more quickly than the stem can resupply. To prevent dangerous stress on the water transport system, baobabs temporarily close their stomata during the hottest parts of the day. This slows water loss and prevents xylem cavitation. Xylem cavitation is the formation of air bubbles in the water transport vessels, the xylem, which blocks the upward flow of water. (Chapotin et al., 2006b). This daily stomatal closure is one way the tree actively limits unnecessary depletion of its reserves.

A second tactic is seasonal leaf shedding. During the hottest and driest months, baobabs deliberately drop all their leaves as seen in Figure 6. Because leaves are the primary surfaces for transpiration, this action drastically reduces water loss. In shedding its canopy, the tree essentially shuts down the major pathway of heat release and conserves water, relying instead on its massive stem reserves to survive long periods of drought (Chapotin et al., 2006b). In this leafless state, baobabs endure the season of highest heat and lowest rainfall with minimal resource waste.

Fig. 6. A baobab in Veld, Limpopo, South Africa after shedding all its leaves in order to preserve its resources during the dry season (Capitals Coalition, 2023).

By avoiding unnecessary depletion of their reserves, baobabs can not only ride out harsh drought and high temperature periods, but they can reserve enough water to regrow their leaves when the rains return. This regrowth allows them to resume active transpiration and canopy cooling demonstrated in Figure 7. (Chapotin et al., 2006b).

Fig. 7. A baobab in the South of Satara, Kruger NP, South Africa after it has regrown all of its leaves once the rains have returned (Heiki Pander, 2020).

Thermal Mass

One of the baobab’s most distinctive features is its enormous trunk, which is often cylindrical and capable of storing thousands of liters of water (Chapotin et al., 2006c). This water content is the main reason the trunk has such a high thermal mass. Thermal mass refers to a material’s ability to absorb and store heat energy without undergoing rapid temperature changes, and in the baobab, this property comes directly from water’s exceptionally high specific heat capacity (about 4.18 kJ g⁻¹ K⁻¹). Due to this unusually high heat capacity, driven by water’s hydrogen-bonding network, large amounts of energy are needed to change its temperature. This means that water warms and cools much more slowly compared to most other substances (Mallamace et al., 2020).

Since so much water is stored inside the trunk, large amounts of heat energy are required not only to raise its temperature but also to cool it down, meaning the trunk both absorbs and releases heat very slowly. Compared to the surrounding air, which has a far lower specific heat capacity (around 1.005 kJ g⁻¹ K⁻¹), the trunk warms and cools at a much steadier pace. During the day, while the air temperature can swing by more than 20 °C, the trunk’s internal temperature shifts only slightly, buffering the living tissues inside from harmful heat stress (Chapotin et al., 2006b).

This effect is especially crucial in hot climates like those in parts of Zimbabwe, where baobabs endure extremes of 40–42 °C (Moyo et al., 2019). In such conditions, other trees may heat up too quickly and damage their internal tissues, but the baobab’s bark and water-rich parenchyma cells slow the process, providing capacitance during the hottest part of the day and delaying the arrival of the heat wave at the cambium (Scholz et al., 2007).

On longer seasonal timescales, this buffering effect continues. Even as baobabs lose about 10–12% of their stem water during the dry months before the rains, the remaining water still stabilizes trunk temperature and prevents critical tissues such as the cambium from overheating or chilling (Chapotin et al., 2006b). This slow, regulated thermal environment is vital because plant cells are highly sensitive to sudden or extreme temperature changes. By keeping their tissues within a safer temperature range, baobabs reduce the risk of cellular damage. Over centuries, this buffering system contributes directly to their extraordinary longevity.

Bark Insulation

Conduction, as established earlier, is the process by which heat moves through materials. The rate of conduction is primarily determined by the thickness of the material and its thermal conductivity, or ease of heat transfer. In baobabs, the bark is not only thick but also fibrous, meaning it is made up of tough, interwoven strands that form fibre bundles and pores (Chapotin et al., 2006c). This arrangement interrupts direct pathways for heat flow, forcing it to weave around fibres and small air pockets instead of moving straight through. As a result, bark functions as an effective insulator, slowing the rate at which heat penetrates the trunk and delaying the rise of damaging temperatures in the living tissues beneath (Gößwald et al., 2021).

The low thermal conductivity of baobab fibres themselves provides further evidence of this insulating effect. Laboratory experiments tested cement composites mixed with baobab trunk fibres and measured their thermal conductivity using an asymmetric hot-plane method. After accounting for density, porosity, and fibre treatments, the results showed a clear trend of conductivity dropping steadily as fibre content increases, as seen in Table 1, reaching as low as 0.086 W·m⁻¹·K⁻¹ at 28% fibre content compared to 0.691 W·m⁻¹·K⁻¹ with no fibres (Ghabo et al., 2023). This decline was linked directly to the fibrous arrangement, which traps air pockets between strands and reduces heat transfer.

Table. 1. Thermal conductivity of fiber-reinforced concretes at different fibre contents (Ghabo et al., 2023).

These results imply that the tree’s bark, composed of the same fibrous tissue, inhibits heat transfer in a comparable way, explaining its ability to shield the cambium not only from daily heating but also from the extreme heat pulses of wildfires for example.

Optimizing Water for Growth during Drought Season

Baobabs, like all trees in arid climates, must use their water efficiently to survive the harsh conditions. For a new plant, establishing roots and growing in such a climate is another challenge altogether. Limited water storage can drastically affect seedling biomass and morphology depending on the water availability of the environment. For an older tree, it must adapt to the unpredictable climates and balance the need for photosynthesis versus the depleting effects of transpiration on its seemingly extensive water storage.

Seedlings in Drought Conditions

To grow in the harsh climate, baobab seedlings must employ different survival strategies to cope with drought season and optimize its water storage and consumption. Depending on the geographic location, seedling growth and morphology vary according to the slight changes in environmental conditions, making for some species to have thin stems, more leaves, etc. in wetter climates (Sanchez et al., 2011).

An important part of the plant of the baobab seedling is its taproot as seen in Figure 8, where most of the water is stored until they reach adulthood. Many trees in drought-areas have fine, shallow roots. Since rain is less likely to occur throughout certain seasons in the year, the water content of the soil is not sufficient to need deeper roots. A baobab taproot is therefore important, and the seedling will direct more biomass towards it during the later weeks of development, seeing that in Figure 9, Sanchez et al found that by week 10 most species’ taproot will be from 35% to just under 60% of the total weight (Sanchez et al., 2011).

Fig. 8. A sixth-month old baobab taproot, the water-storing carrot-like organ (Gebauer et al., 2016).

Fig. 9. Biomass allocation to different plant parts (in % of total plant dry weight) in function of time (weeks after germination) or weight ratios. Top left: Tatakarat (the driest site in Mali), top right: Nchalo (the driest site in Malawi), bottom left: Katon (the wettest site in Mali), bottom right: Likoma (the wettest site in Malawi). Black: taproot, dark grey: fine roots, pale grey: stem, white: leaves (Sanchez et al., 2011).

Furthermore, after 18 weeks, studies show that species from Mali, a drier site, had larger taproots, and fewer leaves, most of them being compound leaves and thinner than Malawian ones. There was also significant water content reported in the hypocotyl, a germinating seed’s stem (Sanchez et al., 2011). De Smedt et al. found that on average the taproot contained 60% of total water content, and that in Malian seedlings, the fine roots’ water content was lower than those in wetter climates, noting the plant’s bias towards the former in drought conditions (De Smedt et al., 2012). Seedlings grown in drought-like conditions had a lower total biomass, but as seen in Figure 9, they allocated their resources to the development of the primary water-storing organ. As such, with their smaller size, these seedlings use their taproot’s water to maintain old leaves, produce new ones during wetter seasons, form roots and maintain metabolic processes (De Smedt et al., 2012, Sanchez et al., 2011).

The trend of reducing unnecessary energy expenditure continued in different parts of Mali and Malawi. Results showed that the fewest stomata were found in Nchalo (driest provenance in Malawi), with a stomatal density of 121.4 no./mm², while Likoma (the wettest) exhibited the highest stomatal density of 213.6 no./mm². However, overall, baobabs in Mali had significantly higher stomatal density across the board in spite of fewer leaves (Sanchez et al., 2011).

The early development of compound leaves in Mali seedlings could be attributed to a drought survival strategy, as these trees have the ability to drop individual leaflets during particularly harsh times. Baobabs in general have small leaves because it allows them to cool more efficiently through convective cooling (Sanchez et al., 2011). However, in drought-like conditions, seedlings shed up to 40% of their leaves only after a few days as seen in Figure 10. They are stabilized later with less foliage at the very top of the trees, unlike adult baobabs which can be completely deciduous. Keeping these small leaves could allow seedlings to benefit from the spontaneous rainfalls, aiding them in developing further (De Smedt et al., 2012, Di Lucchio et al., 2018). One finding reported that by the end of the study, the stems of the seedlings had shrunk, and that around 2% of stem and root water content was used despite there being no sap flow, suggesting that leaves are supported by the water stored in the stem as a way to avoid excessive transpiration (Van den Bilcke et al., 2013).

Fig. 10. The mean relative number of leaves of the baobab seedlings compared with the number of leaves at the beginning of the experiment. Closed symbols: seedlings from Mali, open ones: from Malawi. Continuous lines: control seedlings, dashed lines: droughted seedlings. Bars: standard errors (n=50) (De Smedt et al., 2012).

Fewer leaves resulted in reduced photosynthesis and metabolic activity, alongside declines in transpiration and stomatal conductance (g_s), which directly regulate gas and water vapor exchange. After two weeks of withholding water from plants, Van den Bilcke et al. reported that over 80% of g_s and 90% of transpiration were reduced. Baobabs are among the trees with a chlorenchyma layer, a photosynthesizing bark layer, which helps carbon assimilation during drought season, and when a tree goes dormant (2013). However, the seedlings demonstrated strict stomatal control during their growth, which continues to be a key regulator in adult trees(De Smedt et al., 2012). Leaf potentials of many of these seedlings were also reduced because of lower g_s, but never dropped below -1.2 MPa (Chapotin et al., 2006a, De Smedt et al., 2012). In one study, after 3 weeks of drought conditions, leaf water potential had reduced from -0.57 to -1.06 MPa. The behaviour is similar to many isohydric species, which reduces g_s because of soil water potential reduction. However, baobabs close their stomata during drought even when soil moisture remains adequate to avoid excessive loss of water, maintaining water turgor and avoiding hydraulic failure of the soft wood (Van den Bilcke et al., 2013).

Baobab seedlings are thought to be root-succulent but shift towards stem-succulent once the tree takes on more size. This is punctuated by the fact that drier area seedlings (Mali) have thicker stems, supposedly changing their main storing organ to the stem with its high quantity of parenchymal cells, but are smaller in size (Sanchez et al., 2011, De Smedt et al., 2012). Despite the shift happening at later stages, the stem is still an important water storing organ for the tree during its growth and is important in producing new leaves and preventing xylem cavitation (Chapotin et al., 2006a, De Smedt et al., 2012).

Risky Leaf Flushing and Flowering

Leaf flushing is a process that is commonly found in species of baobab trees. When the dry season hits, the trees tend to lose their leaves, therefore limiting the loss of water via transpiration and maintaining high water stem potentials (De Smedt et al., 2013). Consequently, new leaves need to be grown when the rainy season starts; however, in baobabs, leaf flushing occurs several weeks before the rainy season, when soil water content is at its lowest.

In one study, when the wet season occurred a month earlier than the previous year (September as opposed to October), leaf flushing was triggered, indicating that in unpredictable circumstances, the tree will adapt to water availability. The year prior, 88% of baobabs grew leaves before the season, and 84% flowered. The next year, however, leaf growth was tied to the rainfall, and flowering was significantly delayed (Venter & Witkowski, 2019). The water needed for this endeavour seems to come from the stem, which is corroborated by the sap flow patterns being low near the bottom of the stem during this process as shown in Figure 11, indicating that it is unlikely that the tree used water from the roots. When the air saturation deficit was low in the morning, sap flow rates were high, and lowered during the day as moisture lessened. As soon as the rainy season begins, all across the tree, the sap flow rates increase in Figure 12. Water moves from the stem into the branches to support cuticular water loss but steadily declines after the leaves flourish with the rainfall (Chapotin et al., 2006a).

Fig. 11. Sap flow rates in (a) two Adansonia rubrostipa (AR) trees; (b) two Adansonia za (AZ) trees during the leaf-flushing period. Arrows: fully flushed leaves. Each line is the average of values from two individual probes in similar locations (except one probe only for the top probe on the first AZ tree; data are not available for any top probe on the second AZ tree) (Chapotin et al., 2006a).

Fig. 12. Sap flow rates in (a) one Adansonia rubrostipa (AR) tree; (b) one Adansonia za (AZ) tree during the transitional period between dry and rainy seasons. Leaves were fully flushed by the time measurements were initiated. Sap flow rates responded quickly to small rainfall events (arrows) ranging from 1.5 to 8.5 mm total precipitation. Rainfall amount (mm) given next to each arrow. Each line is the average of values from two individual probes in similar locations (except one probe only for top of AZ) (Chapotin et al., 2006a).

As previously explored, early leaf flushing may present distinct drawbacks for the baobab. For example, the tree may be unable to cool itself during the hottest months, and it risks consuming stored water required to prevent xylem cavitation. It is useful for the tree to be able to benefit from the rain as soon as it starts, given that the leaves have fully grown and are able to undergo photosynthesis, minimizing the time lost compared to a tree with no leaves. Even small rainfalls are advantageous, and with the baobab’s stomatal control, transpiration often only occurs when it rains. So, while there may be leaves, stomatal conductance is still relatively low as the rainy season can be somewhat unpredictable. By keeping the stomata closed, the baobab can maintain turgor. As the leaves flush, the tree is strained trying to support the process, limited by the slow rate of water movement and the fact that excessive water loss in the stem will compromise the integrity of the soft wood (Chapotin et al., 2006a).

In the case of flowering, despite the larger rainfall in 2007, fewer flowers were produced than the previous year when the baobab tree had less water to accumulate for its reserves. It is possible that when the next year came around, the favourable growth of flowers is due to the abundance of rainfall from 2007, or the poor production of that year, allowing for more water to be stored. Interestingly, the early rainfall did not influence peak flower production. Some flowers bloomed when the rain started early, but it was only a month later that the peak occurred, similarly to the previous year. The regularity suggests that flower production is influenced not only by water availability, but by daylength as well, and has some flexibility to respond to environmental changes throughout the many long years of the tree’s life (Venter & Witkowski, 2019).

Conclusion

In conclusion, the baobab tree, through clever manipulation of physical properties, has positioned itself firmly at the top of its ecosystem in an environment where many struggle. During infancy, the baobab sapling uses its taproot for water storage to survive the arid climate, where rainfall is little and the intervals between them are long. The water stored in the taproot is then used to maintain old leaves and produce new ones. However, when the tree matures, its wood becomes porous. In adulthood, the trunk is mostly composed of air and water, providing excellent insulation that serves as a crucial evolutionary adaptation in hot climates by preventing heat from propagating inward. This porous structure also acts as a bigger storer of water than its predecessor, the tap root, for leaf flushing before the rainy season. However, because of this property, the tree loses rigidity as water-rich wood is less stiff than drier wood, which can make it susceptible to breaking under loads, such as strong winds. To compensate for this, the tree has come up with clever geometric solutions. For one, it builds its trunk of multiple stems, which together make the trunk stronger than if it were built with a singular piece. For another, the spacing between these stems has optimized the tree’s stiffness. By spacing them farther away from the center of mass and having a hollow inside, the baobab optimizes the stiffness with less material than a non-hollow tree would. Moreover, to combat the heat, the baobab can selectively drop leaves, which reduces water loss in harsh times, when rainfall is scarce.

Whilst these adaptations and properties of the baobab tree have ensured individual survival of each tree for millennia, its design solutions can also be utilized for human projects. As outlined above, cement composites mixed with baobab fibres have yielded powerful results. The stronger the content of fibres, the stronger the insulation. This could be used in houses or buildings to drive down the cost of heating or cooling. Regardless of applications, the mechanisms this tree uses to survive are ingenious and have made it a staple in many cultures. It is heavily used by humans for medicine, food, materials, and ringed-tailed lemurs for outdoor concert venues. However, its significance is only possible through clever designs which allow it to stay relevant for generations.