Baobab Trees in Botswana
Botswana’s baobabs are among the country’s most visited landmarks, with Baines’ Baobabs in Nxai Pan looking almost exactly as they did in a Victorian painting, Chapman’s Baobab having stood on Ntwetwe Pan for generations before collapsing, and the trees on Kubu Island growing directly out of two-billion-year-old granite. The baobab grows so slowly that stem circumference increases by roughly a millimetre a year.
What a Baobab Is
Worth setting out, because the tree is stranger than it first appears.
The African baobab is the world’s largest succulent, storing water in an enormous trunk, which is how it survives in hot dry country with low rainfall. Known as mowana in Botswana, it is also called the upside-down tree, from the appearance of the bare branches in winter, and the tree of life for what it provides.
Growth is extraordinarily slow, with stem circumference increasing by around a millimetre a year, which is why a century passes as a blink for these trees and why Victorian paintings still match the scene.
Large sweet-smelling flowers open at night and are pollinated by fruit bats.
The fruit, known as monkey bread, is rich in vitamin C and calcium and is eaten by people and animals alike, with bark and leaves used in traditional medicine.
Bees hive in the trunks, and leopards, genets and nesting birds all use them.
Elephants are the tree’s main natural pressure. During drought they gouge into the bark to reach the water stored inside, and repeated damage can eventually kill a tree that has stood for a thousand years. It is a genuine conservation question in areas with high elephant densities, and one with no easy answer, since both species are doing exactly what they have always done.
Baobab stem circumference grows by roughly a millimetre a year. That single fact is why a painting made over 160 years ago at Kudiakam Pan shows the same seven trees standing in the same arrangement today.
Baines’ Baobabs
The most famous group and the reason many people drive into Nxai Pan.
Seven enormous trees stand on the eastern edge of Kudiakam Pan in the southern section of Nxai Pan National Park, estimated at between 800 and well over a thousand years old, with several standing over twenty metres.
They are named after Thomas Baines, the English artist and explorer who painted them on 22 May 1862 while travelling with James Chapman on an expedition from Namibia toward Victoria Falls.
What makes the site a monument rather than a landmark is that the painting still matches. One of the seven has fallen, which is visible in photographs and adds to the arrangement rather than detracting.
They are known locally as the Sleeping Sisters or Seven Sisters, and sit around 45 minutes to an hour of sandy driving from the park’s main gate.
Camping at the trees is not permitted, though three basic sites nearby around Kudiakam Pan each have baobabs of their own.
Chapman’s and Green’s Baobabs
Two more historic trees, both on the Ntwetwe side of the pan system, and one of them is no longer standing.
Chapman’s Baobab was named for James Chapman, Baines’ travelling companion, and was one of the largest trees in Africa, serving as a navigation landmark for generations of travellers crossing the salt country. It collapsed, which was news enough in Botswana to be reported widely.
Green’s Baobab nearby carries carved inscriptions left by nineteenth century hunters and traders, including the Green brothers after whom it is named. Those carvings are a genuine historical record and also a reminder of why carving into trees is now discouraged.
Both sit near the old routes across the pans, which is not a coincidence, since large baobabs were the landmarks people navigated by in country with no other features.
The trees also marked water, since travellers knew that a baobab of that size indicated a place worth stopping. Both sites sit along what was the main wagon route between the interior and the north, which is why the carvings are where they are and why the names on them belong to traders and hunters rather than to anybody local.
The Baobabs of Kubu Island
The most photographed baobabs in Botswana and the strangest setting.
Kubu Island, known locally as Lekhubu, is a granite outcrop roughly a kilometre long rising about ten metres from the southwestern edge of Sua Pan. The rock is estimated at around two billion years old.
Baobabs grow directly out of the rock formations, twisted into fantastic shapes by wind and by growing in almost no soil, with some estimated at well over a thousand years.
What makes the site work photographically is the combination: pale granite, white salt pan running to the horizon and enormous dark trees, with fossilised beaches of wave-rounded pebbles marking the shoreline of the vanished Lake Makgadikgadi.
Camping is permitted below the baobabs, managed by the Gaing O Community Trust on behalf of Mmatshumo village.
The whole island is a national monument and a sacred site, so nothing should be removed, carved or climbed on.
Baines’ Baobabs. Seven trees on Kudiakam Pan in Nxai Pan National Park, matching a painting from 1862. A full day outing with a picnic, roughly an hour of sandy driving from the main gate.
Kubu Island. Baobabs growing out of two-billion-year-old granite on the edge of Sua Pan, with fossil beaches and stone ruins. Community-managed camping below the trees, no facilities beyond a long-drop.
Green’s Baobab and the Ntwetwe trees. Historic navigation landmarks carrying nineteenth century carved inscriptions, near the old routes across the salt country. Chapman’s Baobab nearby has collapsed.
Photographing Baobabs
They are among the most rewarding subjects in Botswana and they present specific problems.
Scale is the first. A baobab photographed alone looks like any large tree, and including a person or a vehicle is usually the difference between a picture that works and one that does not.
Light matters more than usual. Midday flattens the bark and produces harsh shadow, while sunrise and sunset rake across the trunk and pick out the texture.
In the dry season, the cracked pan surface makes a strong foreground pattern leading toward the trees. In the wet months, standing water gives reflections worth waiting for.
Night photography is exceptional at all these sites, with no light pollution and the trees silhouetted against the stars. Kubu is the celebrated location for star trails, where the granite and baobabs give a foreground.
Bring a tripod, which is one of the few situations in Botswana where it earns its weight, and a wide lens rather than a long one, since the subject is the tree against the emptiness rather than any detail within it.
Visiting Responsibly
These trees are protected and several sit on sacred ground.
Baines’ Baobabs are a national monument, as is the whole of Kubu Island.
Do not carve into the bark. The nineteenth century inscriptions on Green’s Baobab are a historical record; a modern addition is vandalism of a protected tree.
Do not climb on the trees, remove anything, or disturb the stone walls and cairns at Kubu.
At Kubu, guided walks can be booked through the community trust, which was formed in direct response to damage caused by uncontrolled tourism.
Camping at Kubu is charged at around 120 Pula per person per night, payable in cash on site, with the money going to the community.
Access to all these sites needs a 4×4 and complete self-sufficiency, since there is no water, fuel or shop anywhere near any of them.
Time any baobab visit for late afternoon rather than the middle of the day. The trees photograph badly in overhead light and the salt glare is punishing, whereas the last hour before sunset is what everybody who has been raves about afterwards.
Frequently Asked Questions About Baobabs in Botswana
How old are Botswana’s baobabs?
Estimates run from around 800 years to well over a thousand for the famous groups, with some individual trees put considerably older. Baobabs are difficult to age precisely because they do not form conventional growth rings, but growth is extraordinarily slow, with stem circumference increasing by roughly a millimetre a year. That is why Baines’ Baobabs look much as they did in a painting made over 160 years ago.
Where are the best baobabs in Botswana?
Baines’ Baobabs, seven trees on the edge of Kudiakam Pan in Nxai Pan National Park, are the most famous and match an 1862 painting. Kubu Island on Sua Pan has baobabs growing straight out of two-billion-year-old granite alongside fossil beaches and stone ruins. Green’s Baobab on the Ntwetwe side carries nineteenth century carved inscriptions, and Chapman’s Baobab nearby was one of Africa’s largest before it collapsed.
Why is the baobab called the upside-down tree?
From the appearance of the bare branches in winter, which look like roots reaching into the sky. It is also called the tree of life for what it provides: large sweet-smelling flowers pollinated by fruit bats at night, fruit known as monkey bread that is rich in vitamin C and calcium, bark and leaves used in traditional medicine, and hollows used by bees, leopards, genets and nesting birds.
Can you camp at Botswana’s baobabs?
At Kubu Island yes, below the trees, managed by the Gaing O Community Trust on behalf of Mmatshumo village, at around 120 Pula per person per night payable in cash with nothing beyond a long-drop toilet. At Baines’ Baobabs camping at the trees themselves is not permitted, though three basic private campsites sit nearby around Kudiakam Pan, each with baobabs of their own, a pit toilet and a shower rig but no water.
How does a baobab survive in the desert?
By storing water. The African baobab is the world’s largest succulent, holding water in an enormous trunk, which lets it survive in hot dry country with very low rainfall. That storage is also why the trunk is so vast relative to the canopy, and why elephants sometimes gouge into the bark of baobabs during drought to reach the moisture inside, which is a genuine pressure on some populations.
Is it acceptable to carve names into baobabs?
No. The nineteenth century inscriptions on Green’s Baobab are a historical record from a period before these trees were protected, and adding to them today is vandalism of a protected tree. Baines’ Baobabs and Kubu Island are both declared national monuments, and Kubu is a sacred site where visitors are asked not to remove anything, carve or climb on the rocks, trees or stone cairns.
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