Adansonia digitata, Willd. (Baobab or Upside-down tree)
Watercolour on paper, no date (late 18th early 19th century). Hand painted copy of an illustration commissioned by William Roxburgh (1751-1815). In his Flora indica Roxburgh describes this plant as a tree which is very scarce in India, and probably not a native of Asia... Read more
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Technical Details
Filename: ROX00000238.jpg
Size: 3600 x 5112 (3.8MB)
Date: 3rd December 2007
Credit: © The Board of Trustees of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew
© The Board of Trustees of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew
Adansonia digitata, Willd. (Baobab or Upside-down tree)
Watercolour on paper, no date (late 18th early 19th century). Hand painted copy of an illustration commissioned by William Roxburgh (1751-1815). In his Flora indica Roxburgh describes this plant as a tree which is very scarce in India, and probably not a native of Asia. Roxburgh tells that in the Botanic Garden of Calcutta, where this tree blossoms in May and June, and ripens its seed in the cool season, there is a 25 years old plant of Adansonia digitata, with an irregular, short and sub-conical trunk, which is 18 feet in circumference. In a letter sent to Roxburgh the 2nd of July 1802, from Mantolle, in Sri Lanka, General Hay Macdowell notes: In my walk last night on the ruins of this once rich and extensive city, called by the natives Mande or Maddoo-ooltum, I chanced to observe a tree whose prodigious magnitude induced me to measure it...fifty feet in circumference, above six feet from the ground, the natives call it Peerig, and from what I have been able to collect, it is not indigenous here
© The Board of Trustees of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew
Media ID 654422
19th Century Botanical Art East India Company India Tree White William Roxburgh Collection
Filename: ROX00000238.jpg
