Descriptors for Baobab (Adansonia digitata L.)

‘Descriptors for Baobab’ were developed as an output of the CGIAR-funded Agriculture for Nutrition and Health programme and the EC-funded Fruiting Africa project. It is the product of exhaustive collaboration amongst 15 core scientists, with consultations from baobab experts worldwide. “This descriptor list is the first, in the Descriptors Series, focusing on a neglected, undomesticated African food tree species with highly nutritious fruits and leaves,” said Katja Kehlenbeck, an ICRAF research scientist, who hopes that more descriptor lists will follow for the many other valuable African food tree species. Baobab (Adansonia digitata L.) is an important multipurpose food tree of the semi-arid and sub-humid zones of sub-Saharan Africa, including countries in western Africa (e.g. Senegal, Mali, Niger, Benin), southern Africa (e.g. Namibia, South Africa, Mozambique, Zambia, Malawi) and eastern Africa (e.g. Sudan, Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania). Bioversity International has been the major driver in promoting the descriptor system and has developed and published over 100 descriptor lists since 1975. Adriana Alercia, who has been running the series for many years said, “We expect this list to support studies focusing on documenting characterization and evaluation traits and conserving baobab genetic resources, selecting superior mother trees for domestication and cultivation and, mainly, increasing production and use of nutritious baobab products.”