Why is the baobab called the upside-down tree?

Its bare branches look like roots

Baobab Tree Quiz: How the Tree of Life Stores Water

A baobab tree can swell and shrink as it stores and uses water in its spongy trunk, and this baobab tree quiz explains how the tree of life survives long dry seasons. Play 10 interactive questions on the eight species, Madagascar's Avenue of the Baobabs, night-blooming flowers, fruit bats, vitamin-rich fruit and ancient giants.

Start Baobab Tree Quiz

🎯 Daily Trivia Challenge • 🧠 10 Questions • ⏱️ 150 Seconds

Question 1 / 10 Time: 150s

Storage
Where does a baobab store most of its water?
Species
How many baobab species are recognized?
Madagascar
How many baobab species grow naturally in Madagascar?
Avenue
Where is the famous Avenue of the Baobabs?
Nickname
Why is the baobab called the upside-down tree?
Pollination
Which animals pollinate the flowers of the African baobab?
Fruit
Which vitamin is baobab fruit pulp rich in?
Australia
What is Australia's baobab called?
Name
Which French botanist is the genus Adansonia named after?
Age
Roughly how old was the Panke baobab of Zimbabwe when it died in 2011?

Explanations: answer key for all 10 questions

Q1: Where does a baobab store most of its water?
Answer: In its soft, fibrous trunk
The spongy wood holds water like a reservoir during the dry season.
Q2: How many baobab species are recognized?
Answer: Eight
Most authorities recognize eight species in the genus Adansonia.
Q3: How many baobab species grow naturally in Madagascar?
Answer: Six
Madagascar is the center of baobab diversity, with six species found nowhere else.
Q4: Where is the famous Avenue of the Baobabs?
Answer: Near Morondava, Madagascar
Tall Grandidier's baobabs line a dirt road near Morondava.
Q5: Why is the baobab called the upside-down tree?
Answer: Its bare branches look like roots
During the long leafless season, the branches resemble roots reaching into the sky.
Q6: Which animals pollinate the flowers of the African baobab?
Answer: Fruit bats
The large white flowers open at night and attract bats.
Q7: Which vitamin is baobab fruit pulp rich in?
Answer: Vitamin C
The dry, tangy pulp is used in drinks and is sometimes called monkey bread.
Q8: What is Australia's baobab called?
Answer: The boab
Adansonia gregorii grows in the Kimberley region of Western Australia.
Q9: Which French botanist is the genus Adansonia named after?
Answer: Michel Adanson
Adanson studied the trees in Senegal in the 1750s.
Q10: Roughly how old was the Panke baobab of Zimbabwe when it died in 2011?
Answer: About 2,450 years
Radiocarbon dating showed it was one of the oldest flowering trees known.

Baobab Tree Quiz – The Tree of Life

Baobabs are trees of the genus Adansonia, with eight species: six in Madagascar, one across mainland Africa and one in Australia, called the boab. They grow in dry regions with long seasons without rain.

The baobab survives by storing water in its soft, fibrous trunk, which swells after rain and shrinks during drought. Some trunks hold well over 100,000 liters. Leafless much of the year, the tree looks upside down, with branches like roots.

African baobab flowers open at night and are pollinated by fruit bats. The fruit pulp is rich in vitamin C. Some baobabs live for thousands of years, though several of the oldest giants died between 2005 and 2017.

What This Quiz Teaches

Nature lovers and students will enjoy these questions.

How baobabs store water
Where the species grow
Who pollinates the flowers
What the fruit offers
How old they can get

Did You Know?

Some hollow baobabs have been used as shelters.
The Avenue of the Baobabs is a protected site.
Elephants sometimes chew baobab bark for moisture.
Baobab seeds yield cooking oil.
Baobab leaves are eaten as a vegetable in parts of Africa.