Baobab: My Favorite Tree

At one point in our history, the larger local hardwood and waterproof timbers were logged almost to extinction because they were used for boat-making. Others were smuggled in or introduced to these islands. Bamboo and several varieties of cane were imported from Asia for their resilience in hot climates and the baobab from Africa for its many nutritional uses. I think every kind of tree has its niche in the world; the trees of the Virgin Islands are no different.

The Baobab tree, named Adansonia Digitata for the French explorer Michel Adanson, is my favorite tree. It is rumored to have been smuggled to the West Indies by the enslaved Africans who used its succulent fruit and seeds to survive. The fruit pods hang down two feet from its branches, can weight as much as 12 pounds and contain as much as 400 seeds.

The baobab trees are considered one of the spirit or “Jumbie” trees; you may find alters built at the base of these trees and I even read that on another island the village elder places a pot and a spoon at the trunk of the tree so that when it got bored, it would have something to do. An interesting feature of baobab tree is how large and old they tend to be.

The largest and quite possible the oldest baobab tree in the Virgin Islands is in Grove Place, on the western end of St. Croix. It is three hundred years old, measures 55 feet - tree trunk diameter, and it happens to be hollow, which is not a bad thing for a tree that can grow to one hundred feet in diameter. The hollow centers of these trees have been used as wells, hurricane shelters , bars and prison cells. The Grove Place Baobab is a historical site and has witness the gathering of Queen Mary and the other women of the St. Croix Fireburn, as well as the gathering of David Hamilton Jackson and the first labor union meetings and strike.

There are other notable baobabs predominantly on St. Croix and in particular at Butler Bay. There are six gargantuan baobabs but originally there were more lining the entrance way to the estate. The sheer mass of these slow-but-sure growing trees will bear witness to many more years of life in the Virgin Islands. Culturemom, signing out.