Baobab Tree Colouring Page

The African baobab, Adansonia digitata, grows across dry savannas of mainland Africa. Its trunk can become enormously wide because it stores water in spongy wood. A mature tree is often 5 to 25 metres tall, but its girth may be even more impressive than its height. Baobabs can live for many centuries, and some ancient individuals have been estimated at more than a thousand years old. During the dry season the tree may lose its hand-shaped leaves, making the thick branches look like roots pointing into the sky. Large white flowers and oval, hard-shelled fruits hang from the crown. Near the end of the dry season, flowers may open in the evening. Their strong scent and abundant nectar attract fruit bats and other nocturnal visitors that can move pollen between trees. Bees, birds, monkeys, elephants, and people also use baobab resources in different regions. The fruit contains a dry nutritious pulp, but children should never collect or taste wild food without informed adult guidance and local permission. An elephant may rub against trunks or seek food nearby, yet wild elephants need great distance and respect. The baobab also creates shade, nesting places, and a meeting point in open country. Climate change and the loss of old trees make careful protection important. This picture shows a bottle-shaped trunk, palmate leaves, large flowers, hanging fruits, crescent moon, fruit bat, elephant calf, grasses, and distant acacias. Colour the trunk in soft grey, warm tan, or pale brown, using slightly darker curves to show its rounded shape. Keep the flowers white or cream with yellow, pink, or pale green stamens. Fruits can be brown, grey-green, or sandy tan. Use fresh green on remaining leaves. The fruit bat may be russet, brown, grey, or golden, and the elephant calf can be grey with pinkish inner ears. Add a deepening blue or violet dusk sky around the white moon, but keep plenty of light space between branches. Savanna grass can be gold with patches of olive. Follow the trunk with broad curved strokes and use smaller strokes on leaf fingers, flowers, and fur. Leave highlights on the fruit and animal eyes. Your finished page should make the baobab feel ancient, generous, and alive with evening visitors.

◫ A4 size✎ Bold outlines♡ Ages 3–8

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Choose a favourite colour palette
Add a simple background
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Grown-up note: Please supervise printing and choose age-appropriate art materials.