Brief Communication | Published:

The demise of the largest and oldest African baobabs

Nature Plants 4, 423–426 (2018) | Download Citation

Subjects

Abstract

The African baobab is the biggest and longest-living angiosperm tree. By using radiocarbon dating we identified the stable architectures that enable baobabs to reach large sizes and great ages. We report that 9 of the 13 oldest and 5 of the 6 largest individuals have died, or at least their oldest parts/stems have collapsed and died, over the past 12 years; the cause of the mortalities is still unclear.

Access optionsAccess options

Rent or Buy article

Get time limited or full article access on ReadCube.

from$8.99

Rent or Buy

All prices are NET prices.

Additional information

Publisher’s note: Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Change history

  • 02 July 2018

    In Supplementary Table 1 originally published with this Brief Communication, the authors gave an incorrect GPS easterly coordinate for tree number 12 (Makulu Makete Big baobab); the coordinate ‘2° 34.584' S, 25° 52.261' E’ should have read ‘22° 34.584' S, 28° 52.261' E’. This has now been amended in the online Supplementary Information file for this Brief Communication.

References

  1. 1.

    Wickens, G. E. & Lowe, P. The Baobabs: Pachycauls of Africa, Madagascar and Australia (Springer, Dordrecht, 2008).

    • 2.

      Wickens, G. E. Kew Bull. 47, 173–209 (1983).

    • 3.

      Baum, D. A. Ann. Mo. Bot. Gard. 82, 440–471 (1995).

    • 4.

      Patrut, A. et al. Ann. For. Sci. 68, 993–1003 (2011).

    • 5.

      Patrut, A., von Reden, K. F., Mayne, D. H., Lowy, D. A. & Patrut, R. T. Nucl. Instrum. Methods Phys. Rev. B 294, 622–626 (2013).

    • 6.

      Patrut, A. et al. PLoS ONE 10, e0117193 (2015).

    • 7.

      Patrut, A. et al. Radiocarbon 59, 435–448 (2017).

    • 8.

      Patrut, A. et al. Tree Physiol. 27, 1569–1574 (2007).

    • 9.

      Alexander, J., McGregor, J. A. & Ranger, T. Violence & Memory, One Hundred Years in the ‘Dark Forests’ of Matabeleland (Currey, Oxford, 2000).

      • 10.

        Mullin, L. J. Historic Trees of Zimbabwe (CBC, Bath, 2003).

        • 11.

          Patrut, A. et al. Radiocarbon 52, 717–726 (2010).

        • 12.

          Engelbrecht, F. et al. Environ. Res. Lett. 10, 085004 (2015).

        • 13.

          Bronk Ramsey, C. et al. Radiocarbon 51, 337–360 (2009).

        • 14.

          Hogg, A. G. et al. Radiocarbon 55, 1889–1903 (2013).

        Download references

        Acknowledgements

        The investigation and collection of samples from the trees was approved and authorised by the South African National Parks, the Kruger National Park, the Mapungubwe National Park, the Ministry of Environment and Tourism of Namibia and the Department of Wildlife and National Parks of Botswana, the South Luangwa National Park. We thank H. and D. van Heerden, P. Philips and J. Chidgey, C. and Y. Liversage, L. Duplessis and R. and A. Whittall for granting permission for on-site investigation of baobabs located on their private lands. We also thank D.H. Mayne, M. Hofmeyr, S. Venter, A. Alberts, R. Wittmann, D. Dube and O. (Leon) Tsamkgao for helping to obtain permits and for participating at several field investigations. Special thanks go to J. Alexander for providing the photograph of Panke. This research was supported by the Romanian Ministry of National Education CNCS-UEFISCDI under grant PN-II-ID-PCE-2013-76 and by the Romanian Ministry of Research and Innovation CNCS-UEFISCDI under grant PN-III-P4-ID-PCE-2016-0776, no. 90/2017.

        Author information

        Affiliations

        1. Faculty of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Babes-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca, Romania

          • Adrian Patrut

        2. iThemba LABS, Johannesburg, South Africa

          • Stephan Woodborne

        3. Faculty of Biology and Geology, Babes-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca, Romania

          • Roxana T. Patrut
          •  & Laszlo Rakosy

        4. Department of Science and Engineering, Nova University, Alexandria, VA, USA

          • Daniel A. Lowy

        5. Mammal Research Institute, University of Pretoria, Pretoria, South Africa

          • Grant Hall

        6. NOSAMS Facility, Department of Geology & Geophysics, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole, MA, USA

          • Karl F. von Reden

        Authors

        1. Search for Adrian Patrut in:

        2. Search for Stephan Woodborne in:

        3. Search for Roxana T. Patrut in:

        4. Search for Laszlo Rakosy in:

        5. Search for Daniel A. Lowy in:

        6. Search for Grant Hall in:

        7. Search for Karl F. von Reden in:

        Contributions

        A.P. conceived the research. A.P., S.W., R.T.P., L.R. and G.H. performed field investigations and collected samples. K.F.v.R. performed AMS measurements. A.P., S.W., R.T.P. and D.A.L. interpreted results and wrote the manuscript.

        Competing interests

        The authors declare no competing interests.

        Corresponding author

        Correspondence to Adrian Patrut.

        Supplementary information

        1. Supplementary Information

          Supplementary Figs. 1–3, Supplementary Tables 1 and 2

        2. Reporting Summary

        To obtain permission to re-use content from this article visit RightsLink.

        About this article

        Publication history

        Received

        Accepted

        Published

        DOI

        https://doi.org/10.1038/s41477-018-0170-5