Baum D A and Oginuma K (1994) A Review of Chromosome Numbers in Bombacaeae with New Counts for Adansonia. Taxon, 43(1): 11-20
New chromosome counts are reported for all eight species of
Adansonia. The six Malagasy species and the Australian species
have 2n = 88, whereas the single African species, A. digitata,
has 2n = 160. We review published counts for the family as a whole and conclude that there have been many inaccurate counts but that 2n = 86-92 appears to be general. A. digitata, Rhodognaphalon brevicuspe and Eriotheca pubescens are inferred to be polyploids. The tribe Durioneae, with counts of 2n = 28 and 2n = 56, is distant from the remainder of the family, as also suggested by morphological, biogeographic and molecular data.
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Danthu P, Roussel J, Gaye A and El Mazzoudi E H (1994) Baobab (Adansonia digitata L.) seed pretreatments for germination improvement. Seed Science and Technology, 23(2): 469-475
Baobab seeds (Adansonia digitata) have very hard seed coats and germination is usually under 20%. Treatment with concentrated sulphuric acid for six to twelve hours led to germination of more than 90% of the seeds within twenty days of sowing. Manual scarification (removal of a small fragment of integument) hastened germination, which was completed in six to eight days. However,this method could result in rapid imbibition of the seeds which led to the necrosis of 10 to 25% of the embryo. Boiling water treatment gave variable results depending on the seedlots used, while soaking in cold water was generally ineffective and was sometimes harmful after manual scarification.
Fussel J (1992) Adoption of Agroclimatograms for Assisting Species Selection in the Tropics. Agroforestry Systems, 17(2): 87-96
Agroclimatograms are presented for assisting species selection in the tropics by analyzing agroclimatological factors and similarities. The diagrams include data for temperature, precipitation, water budget and potential evapotranspiration (PET). A computer program to calculate the PET is provided and Adansonia digitata L. (baobab) is used as an illustrative example.
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