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The demise of the largest and oldest African baobabs

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Matters Arising to this article was published on 17 May 2024

An Author Correction to this article was published on 02 July 2018

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Abstract

The African baobab is the biggest and longest-living angiosperm tree. By using radiocarbon dating we identified the stable architectures that enable baobabs to reach large sizes and great ages. We report that 9 of the 13 oldest and 5 of the 6 largest individuals have died, or at least their oldest parts/stems have collapsed and died, over the past 12 years; the cause of the mortalities is still unclear.

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Fig. 1: Life and death of the historic Chapman baobab.

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Change history

  • 02 July 2018

    In Supplementary Table 1 originally published with this Brief Communication, the authors gave an incorrect GPS easterly coordinate for tree number 12 (Makulu Makete Big baobab); the coordinate ‘2° 34.584' S, 25° 52.261' E’ should have read ‘22° 34.584' S, 28° 52.261' E’. This has now been amended in the online Supplementary Information file for this Brief Communication.

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Acknowledgements

The investigation and collection of samples from the trees was approved and authorised by the South African National Parks, the Kruger National Park, the Mapungubwe National Park, the Ministry of Environment and Tourism of Namibia and the Department of Wildlife and National Parks of Botswana, the South Luangwa National Park. We thank H. and D. van Heerden, P. Philips and J. Chidgey, C. and Y. Liversage, L. Duplessis and R. and A. Whittall for granting permission for on-site investigation of baobabs located on their private lands. We also thank D.H. Mayne, M. Hofmeyr, S. Venter, A. Alberts, R. Wittmann, D. Dube and O. (Leon) Tsamkgao for helping to obtain permits and for participating at several field investigations. Special thanks go to J. Alexander for providing the photograph of Panke. This research was supported by the Romanian Ministry of National Education CNCS-UEFISCDI under grant PN-II-ID-PCE-2013-76 and by the Romanian Ministry of Research and Innovation CNCS-UEFISCDI under grant PN-III-P4-ID-PCE-2016-0776, no. 90/2017.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Babes-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca, Romania

    Adrian Patrut

  2. iThemba LABS, Johannesburg, South Africa

    Stephan Woodborne

  3. Faculty of Biology and Geology, Babes-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca, Romania

    Roxana T. Patrut & Laszlo Rakosy

  4. Department of Science and Engineering, Nova University, Alexandria, VA, USA

    Daniel A. Lowy

  5. Mammal Research Institute, University of Pretoria, Pretoria, South Africa

    Grant Hall

  6. NOSAMS Facility, Department of Geology & Geophysics, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole, MA, USA

    Karl F. von Reden

Authors
  1. Adrian Patrut
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  2. Stephan Woodborne
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  3. Roxana T. Patrut
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  4. Laszlo Rakosy
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  5. Daniel A. Lowy
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  6. Grant Hall
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  7. Karl F. von Reden
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Contributions

A.P. conceived the research. A.P., S.W., R.T.P., L.R. and G.H. performed field investigations and collected samples. K.F.v.R. performed AMS measurements. A.P., S.W., R.T.P. and D.A.L. interpreted results and wrote the manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Adrian Patrut.

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The authors declare no competing interests.

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Supplementary Information

Supplementary Figs. 1–3, Supplementary Tables 1 and 2

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Patrut, A., Woodborne, S., Patrut, R.T. et al. The demise of the largest and oldest African baobabs. Nature Plants 4, 423–426 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41477-018-0170-5

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