Boabab Avenue

[Oxman]

This pic is from James & Verity Bester's uyaphi.com African Safari Outfitters website.

Forests-forever.com has a nice Flash animated half hour slideshow called "Under the Forests Maternal Gaze, Boabab Avenue". Lots of multimedia formatting: composites, pulls; pans; zooms of still images, maps, graphics, aerial views, etc.

Another great slideshow is of the Monteverde Cloud Forest, in Costa Rica. Eerie haunting music accompanies the images.

The photographer of these photo essays is Yasunobu Kobayashi, author of Forest Planet, published in 2001 by Sekaibunka Publishing.

 

[NickfromWI]

I really wanna climb one of those. I get the feeling that the wood is super soft. I imagine a huge jade tree!

I wonder what it's really like

love
nick

 

[Leon]

Here's a young baobab on the Univeristy of Hawaii campus. They built the art building around it. It's a very cool tree.

 

[R_Schra]

Thats a shame they build it so close.

 

[Jamin_Mayer]

Anyone watch the T.V. show called "Lost?" They film that in Hawii. I see all sorts of unique trees on that show and I have the slightest idea as to their identification.

Cool photo Leon!

 

[guymayor]

Bob van Pelt from Ox's territory at the U of WA put together some images of baobabs after he went over there to measure a few of the really big ones. (Never mind H + C + 1/4S, he's into volumetrics.) Seems their habitat is endangered over there.

Schra, I don't think that building close to one of those is like an oak or elm; they don't need as much room as they mature. Is that what they were planning on, rumi?

btw I met Kevin Eckert recently here in NC. We talked about 07 in HI a bit, and both spoke highly of your work on behalf of the globe...

 

[Leon]

The tree is a just a little bit close to the building. There will have to be some pruning done as some of the large limbs that are close to the roof start to droop a little as they get heavier. On the whole, though, the tree should be alright, as long as the tree climbers on campus don't get too carried away, which they sometimes do. I'm just glad they didn't cut it down when they put the building in (can you imagine trying to take down that trunk?).

Guy, glad to hear that you met Kevin. I work with him often and have learned a lot about the consulting side of the biz from him. Honolulu in 2007! It's gonna be a blast.


notahacker, they actually shot a few scenes of Lost in the botanical garden I work at. I didn't meet any of the actors, but the crew was pretty cool. They let us play with their tools and we got free food from their catering cart. I don't watch TV so I've never actually seen the show.

 

[Gareth]

In Africa the Baobab tree is steeped in myth and superstition. One belief is that God pulled the trees from the ground and planted them upside down. Another - a lion will devour anyone rash enough to pluck a flower from a baobab tree for the blossoms are believed to be inhabited by spirits.
Older specimens are reported to be over 3000yrs old.
The girth in older specimens can be up to 30m in circum.