Boab

This is the trunk of a Boab, or Bottle Tree, the only one of the family of Baobab trees found in Australia. (The other species occur in Madagascar and Africa). These trees were my primary reason for heading all the way out to the border of Western Australia, so you will have to excuse the number of pictures I've posted of them. At this moment I was admiring the surface of the trunk... it felt like skin. These were seriously huggable trees.




They were such little characters; each one was unique.




The trees are deciduous, but they each seemed to be on their own schedule, as we saw trees that were completely bare, like this one, and fully leafed out, like the next.






Often two smaller trees would grow up side by side and eventually merge into one big gnarly one.




The fruits are large (orange sized) and fuzzy on the outside. The inside is filled with a chalky powder that the Aborigines use for food.