JARACAL

Interesting, of all the probable reasons given in the piece i suspect it is probably draught.

Yet, Africa always has cycles of drought. Those trees that were 2,400 years old must have survived hundreds of droughts. If it is the drought that is killing them off then my question would be: what is causing them to no longer be as drought-resistant as they were?

Dimitri wrote:Yet, Africa always has cycles of drought. Those trees that were 2,400 years old must have survived hundreds of droughts. If it is the drought that is killing them off then my question would be: what is causing them to no longer be as drought-resistant as they were?

Ouderdom is n black-sam Engelsman!

Dimitri although I do not base this on any scientific facts but maybe it's just their time to go.
What would be interesting is waht is happening to the Baobabs in Madagaskar if they show any signs of dying off as they have so many of them there.

Frederik wrote:Dimitri although I do not base this on any scientific facts but maybe it's just their time to go.
What would be interesting is waht is happening to the Baobabs in Madagaskar if they show any signs of dying off as they have so many of them there.

Learnt something. Didn't realise there were baobabs in Madagascar. Agree that it would be very interesting to know how their boababs are doing.

The Baobab is an icon of Madagascar. They've got huge forests of them there.

Smitstertjies wrote:The Baobab is an icon of Madagascar. They've got huge forests of them there.

Yikes. Feel rather silly. Better brush up on my general knowledge.

Slightly off the Baobab topic, but it shows that humankind has a way of unknowingly (sometimes), stuffing up nature.

I have just come back from a Barging trip in the South of France where thousands of Plane trees are dying and being chopped down (most planted in the 1830's).

Specialists identified the fungus Ceratocystis platani, which is believed to have been brought to France in contaminated wooden ammunition boxes used by US troops during the second world war.

Boat users bumping into the trees and tying mooring ropes around them are also thought to have contributed to the spread of the fungus.

............... I thought it was very interesting. We are also having our own challenges in SA with the infestation of the Shot Hole Borer in our indigenous and exotic trees (quite a bit about it in the press lately)

Sent from my SM-G935F using Tapatalk