The Boabab tree is one of Africa's best kept secrets, well to those of us who've never spent time in Africa.
It is an incredibly useful tree and could be a very useful cash crop in impoverished regions.

The EU has just approved derivatives of the fruit for sale in Europe & the UK.

The fruit will be removed from its nut and the pulp, which is white, powdery and has a cheese-like texture, will be used as an ingredient in products such as cereal bars.

PhytoTrade Africa, has been lobbying for the EU approval, hopes the demand for the fruit will mean employment for millions of African people.

Gus Le Breton, the company's chief executive, said: "The EU decision is a crucial step to developing the global market which could be worth up to £500m a year.

The fruit, contained in a hard nut, has six times more vitamin C than oranges and twice as much calcium as milk.

African people have eaten the fruit for thousands of years, but Europeans will consume its pulp as an ingredient in smoothies and cereal bars.

Since 1997, foods not commonly consumed in the EU have had to be formally approved before going on sale.

Hopefully we'll see these available in Gibraltar too.

Adansonia digitata, the Baobab tree was named in honour of Michel Adanson a naturalist who first saw it in Senegal, Africa about 1750.

The Baobab tree is a strange looking tree. It grows in low-lying areas in Africa and also in Australia.

It can grow to enormous sizes and some specimens are thougt to be up to 3,000 years old.

The tree is looks very different from any other tree. The trunk is smooth and shiny and it is pinkish grey or sometimes copper coloured.

The Baobab tree has large whitish flowers which open at night.

 The fruit, which grows up to a foot long, contains tartaric acid and vitamin C and can either be sucked, or soaked in water to make a refreshing drink. They can also be roasted and ground up to make a coffee-like drink.

The fruit is not the only part of the Baobab that can be used.

The bark is pounded to make rope, mats, baskets, paper and cloth; the leaves can be boiled and eaten, and glue can be made from the pollen.

Weird Facts & Superstitions:

• If you pick a flower from a Baobab tree you will be eaten by a lion.

• If you drink water in which a Baobab's seeds have been soaked you will be safe from crocodile attack.

• Baobabs are very difficult to kill, they can be burnt, or stripped of their bark, and they will just form new bark and carry on growing.

• When they do die, they simply rot from the inside and suddenly collapse, leaving a heap of fibres.

• An old Baobab tree can support the life of countless creatures, from the largest of mammals to the thousands of tiny creatures scurrying in and out of its crevices. Birds nest in its branches; baboons devour the fruit; bush babies and fruit bats drink the nectar and pollinate the flowers, and elephants have been known to chop down and consume a whole tree.

• A Baby Baobab tree looks very different from its adult form and this is why the Bushmen believe that it doesn't grow like other trees, but suddenly crashes to the ground with a thump, fully grown, and then one day simply disappears. No wonder they are thought of as magic trees.

• Baobabs, grown from seed, are a popular choice for cultivation as bonsai plants.