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First record of baobab (Adansonia digitata L.) in Uganda

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Abstract

The baobab (Adansonia digitata L.) is a remarkable key tree species with different uses in many African countries. International interest in the species has intensified in recent years. Despite the wide distribution of the baobab in many African regions, the tree has been reported to be absent in Uganda. In 2015 and 2016, research trips in the Central, Western, Eastern and Northern Regions of Uganda were conducted to screen the cultivated and natural flora for baobabs. As a result, four vigorous baobab trees aged 9 and 22 years were identified in two gardens in the Iganga and Soroti Districts in the Eastern Region of Uganda. The origins of the planting materials were Nyala in Sudan and Mombasa in Kenya. To our knowledge, these are the first scientific records of baobab in Uganda and some research questions and key propositions are formulated based on this discovery.

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Acknowledgments

This study was part of the subproject 4, work package 2 (031A247B) within the collaborative research project “Reduction of Post-Harvest Losses and Value Addition in East African Food Value Chains” (RELOAD) of the initiative “GlobE—Research for the Global Food Supply” of the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF). We are also grateful to Antonia Nyamukuru, PhD candidate at Makerere University in Kampala, Uganda and Sebastian Walaita Javan affiliated with Delight Uganda Ltd. in Kampala, Uganda for collecting information on promising study locations. To Richard Bawonga we are thankful for driving us safely all the 4975 km through Uganda. Furthermore, we also acknowledge the support of Dr Eike Luedeling affiliated with the World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF) in Nairobi, Kenya and the Center for Development Research (ZEF) in Bonn, Germany for creating the Uganda map (Fig. 1).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Life Sciences, Rhine-Waal University of Applied Sciences, Marie-Curie-Str. 1, 47533, Kleve, Germany

    Jens Gebauer & Cory W. Whitney

  2. Faculty of Organic Agricultural Sciences, University of Kassel, Steinstr. 19, 37213, Witzenhausen, Germany

    Cory W. Whitney

  3. College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, Makerere University, P.O. Box 7062, Kampala, Uganda

    John R. S. Tabuti

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  1. Jens Gebauer
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Correspondence to Jens Gebauer.

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Gebauer, J., Whitney, C.W. & Tabuti, J.R.S. First record of baobab (Adansonia digitata L.) in Uganda. Genet Resour Crop Evol 63, 755–762 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10722-016-0387-y

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