Baobab Tree (Delft Island), Sri Lanka
The Baobab tree located on Delft island, Jaffna District (Sinhala: ඩෙල්ෆ් බයෝබැබ් ගස) is believed to be one of the oldest trees in Sri Lanka. Baobab in Sri Lanka
Baobab ( Adansonia digitata L. ) is not a native to Sri Lanka but several baobab clusters are found mostly on Mannar and neighbouring areas in the northwest of the island. They are believed to be introduced to Sri Lanka by Arab traders (Vandercone et al., 2004). However, ancient texts written in Pali, Sinhala and Tamil indicate that the baobab trees surrounding places were famous due to naval business before the arrival of Arabians and this fact has been proved by the archaeological excavation. Baobab is called locally " Aliya-gaha " (elephant tree) by Sinhalese and " Perukka " by Tamils (Vandercone et al., 2004). According to Vandercone et al. (2004), about 40 baobab trees survive in Sri Lanka, of which 34 have been identified on the island of Mannar (Vandercone et al., 2004). Due to its rarity, antiquity, an…
