Kingdom Plantae Family Malvaceae Rank Species | Order Malvales Genus Adansonia | |
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Similar Adansonia perrieri, Adansonia suarezensis, Adansonia madagascariensis, Adansonia rubrostipa, Adansonia za | ||
Adansonia kilima is a species of baobab tree native to Africa, described in 2012. As with other baobabs, it is easily recognised by the swollen base of its trunk, which forms a massive caudex, giving the tree a bottle-like appearance. It is similar in appearance to the well-known Adansonia digitata. Adansonia kilima is found in upland populations of southern and eastern Africa, where A. digitata also occurs. It has a restricted geographic range compared to A. digitata, is diploid, and therefore presumably ancestral to the tetraploid A. digitata.
Description
Although similar in appearance to A. digitata, A. kilima can be distinguished by its smaller flowers (about half the size of A. digitata flowers) which it often presents in large numbers each night (unlike the small number presented by A. digitata). The pollen grains are about 2/3 the diameter of the pollen of A. digitata, and more spiny.