Australian Boab Trees are an Australian native species. They are also known Traditionally as larrkardiy or botanically as (Adansonia Gregorii - named after a British explorer). Some of these trees are more than 1,500 years old and they are only found in the Kimberley regions of Western Australia and the Northern Territory.
There is much controversy around how it arrived in Australia (apparently floating across the ocean from Africa - or floated to Africa from Australia?) Either way it was used Traditionally for thousands of years by the Indigenous people of Australia for food and medicine. Almost every part of the tree can be eaten from the young leaves and tubers to the internal fruit pods and seeds. The bulb of the trunk indicates a source of water underneath.
This grande attractive bulbous tree with its leaves on in the wet season Nov-April and only the fruits in the dry season. You know it when you come across them as they stand bold and strong, each with their own character. We found them from the Kimberleys and lots in Derby and all the way to Katherine.
The tree also produces attractive large fragrant yellow/golden flowers. Inside the fruit pod contains the fruit which is naturally dried on the tree itself. The only fruit in the world that does this. The seeds inside are surrounded by the pithy edible dried fruit. When you touch it you can break it apart and it turns to powder.
The delicious mildly sweet lemon sherbet fruit powder can be mixed with water to make a paste. I usually make the paste then mix it with coconut water or add it to yogurt and other desserts. You can see how to use it on the Boab powder product page.
The Indigenous people of the region often use the hard outer casing of the fruit to make attractive ornamental engravings and its fun for the children to rattle the nut and hear the clucking of the fruit pod inside.
The boab nut can stay intact many months after it has fallen but also cracks open upon hitting the ground.
For nutrients contained in the Boab fruit go to our Health Benefits section on this website.
Julie Merlet at NATIF.
