Boab tree By Quinn and Leo

Adaptations During the wet season they store water in their really big trunk. They can store 100,000 litters of water in their trunk. Inside the stem it is spongey to store water. On the outside they have a hard and strong bark. The strong bark protects the tree from animals. Shiny bark reflects sunlight so the tree does not dry out and die. During the wet season they loose their leaves to conserve water and energy .The boab tree produces large seed pods to reproduce more boab trees

Behavioural Features The baobab tree has created different ways in its behavior to suit its survival here are some of them and why the tree has these adaptions. It discourages animals with thorns It has a symbiotic relationship with stinging ants. When an animal comes towards the ants uses there stings to sting them the tree protects the ants from other insects. The leaves have a chemical defense system triggered when giraffe grazes on the leaves it poisoned it can stop nervous system. On the leaves there is a chemical called alkaloid containing drug compounds and  poisonous  It has smaller leaves to limit water loss. The trunk stores water during the wet season and uses the water when water is hard to get. The roots are fire-resistant with tap like roots to stop it getting burnt down. It also uses the same technique against volcanoes, there are reports of some baobab trees surviving

Environment Dry sand little amount of water Kimberley national park  Rough bush Savanna biome Regarded as one of the last wildness Can't grow in frost Sandy soil Plenty of water Dryer better winter

Habitat The Australian baobab tree grows in Kimberley region it’s mostly sandy soil, low vegetation and dry landscape. It has low amounts of bush but the bush is rough. The Kimberley is good for the baobab tree because it doesn’t frost over and the winter aren’t too wet or to cold. This is good because the baobab tree can’t grow in frost and to little water will dry out the tree and kill it. Too much water drowns the tree. The Kimberley is a savanna regarded as one of the last wildness.

Fun Facts Latin name:  Adansonia digitata One of the most famous tree is the jail sell it was 14.7 m long and could hold people captured Some people call them boatel trees because they store water in their trunk and look like a boatel They can grow up to 25 metres long There are 6 species  Madagascar 2 from mainland Africa and one from Australia There are many different beliefs on how the boab tree came to be in Australia and Africa. Here is one – a boab tree seed floated in the Indian Ocean from Africa to Western Australia.

Awesome facts The trunk stores water The leaves during the dry season only appear in and after the leaf flush Leaf flush is when a tree ma kes new leaves to replace the others There is a 6000 year boab A boab as 47metres circumference The tree stores hundreds of litres of water It can supply shelter, food and clothing  The cork bark is fire resistant  The leaves are used in medicines The fruit is called monkey bread and contains vitamin c 

Uses People use the tree as a building material seeing the trunk is very strong. People also use it for medicine and to keep health up. It has five times the magnesium of avocados ,four times the potassium of bananas, twice the calcium of milk ,twice the antioxidants of acai berries, and more than any other fruit ,six times the vitamin C of oranges ,ten times the fibre of apples.

The Experiment What we did for the experiment We wanted to see if the spouge could soak up water in the dirt and sand. We predicted the sponge would suck all the water in the dirt and very little would be sucked up in the sand. 1. We put same amount of sand and dirt in two containers 2. We put 20 mls of water in each container 3. We put a sponge the same size and weight in each container 4. We waited 5 minutes for the sponge to soak up the water 5. We weighed the sponge and recorded how much the sponge weighed 6. We did this every 5 minutes for 25 minutes

Reflection on experiment Our experiment was interesting and successful. Our prediction was correct. The sponge we put in the dirt soaked up the most water We changed the rotation of the spouge because it wasn’t soaking up water. Plus we changed the amount of water to 50mls to show the real difference. As soon as we poured the water in the sand became a lot darker and as the spouge sucked the water up the sand became lighter colored again the dirt didn’t really change. The sponge became dirty when we didn’t scrape the dirt off. The water in the dirt stayed close to the top but in the sand the water was absorbed quickly. The spouge in the dirt absorbed more water because the water stayed close to the top. The sand absorbed the water dramatically quickly not letting the spouge absorb the water. We could change experiment by adding more water and a bigger sponge because the sponge was too small Another experiment we could carry out is how the sunlight reflects off the shiny bark

Graph of the experiment results Dirt Sand

Bibliography https://www.daleysfruit.com.au/Nuts/malabar.htm <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adansonia_gregorii>  <https://www.treeaid.org.uk/baobab-tree-life/?gclid=CMu40JaPztQCFZErvQod850LHA>  <https://africageographic.com/blog/9-fascinating-baobab-tree-facts/ outbackjoe.com/macho-divertissement/bush-tucker-plants-and-animals/boab-tree/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adansonia_gregorii http://anpsa.org.au/APOL2009/aug09-s1.html http://talkingplants.blogspot.com.au/2010/07/boabs-boababs-and-bottles.html http://www.krugerpark.co.za/africa_baobab.html http://www.info.com/search?qcat=web&r_cop=search&qkw=boab+tree https://parks.dpaw.wa.gov.au/site/careening-bay