A wondrous tree, when David Gill of Global Trees Campaign told us it was endangered we decided that it should definitely be one of our favoured species. Colloquially called the ‘upside-down-tree’ the Adansonia grandidieri is only found in scattered remnants on the south west of Madagascar, where the iconic and revered Avenue of the Baobabs stands proud in the Morondava district.

Conservation team Madagasikara Voakijy (MV) was alerted to the plight of tree whilst researching the falling numbers of the Malagasy Flying Fox (Pterops rufus), a fruitbat critically important for seed dispersal of the baobab. The Adansonia grandidieri is now the focus of a dedicated MV programme aimed at protection and restoration of the endangered species through education and conservation.

The tree makes fruits and seeds in the winter months, and initially it proved difficult for us to source seeds from the wild so we have had vital support from Stuart Cable at Kew Gardens Madagascar Conservation Centre who has assisted in providing seed from the Millenium Seed Bank. A batch was provided in June 2015, grown at Kew’s Herbarium of which there is one surviving sapling in vitro and a further batch of seeds has been provided, scarified and sown by the team at Cambridge University Botanic Garden on 29 January 2016. In February, we received word the seeds were germinating.