5023.000 Adansonia L.

Soft-wooded trees, often of great girth. Leaves digitate; leaflets 3-9, entire, the innermost larger than the outer ones. Flowers axillary and solitary, large, pendulous; pedicels with 2 bracteoles. Calyx deeply 5-lobed, villous inside. Petals 5, oblong. Stamens many, the filaments united into a tube in their lower part; anthers reniform. Ovary 5-10-locular, with numerous ovules; stigma 5-10-lobed. Fruit woody, indehiscent, with many seeds embedded in a floury pulp. Seeds reniform or globose; hilum lateral; testa thick, endosperm thin; cotyledons contorted.

Worldwide: 8 species; 1 in Africa; 6 in Madagascar and 1 in NW Australia

Zambia: 1 cultivated taxon.