Nature photographer Marsel van Oosten didn’t need to venture off planet to visit this otherworldly forest. These stunning baobab trees are located right here on Earth in Madagascar.
Photo credit: Marsel van Oosten (used with permission)
Incredibly, a single baobab tree (of which there are nine different species in the genus Adansonia) can grow as tall as 16 to 98 feet (5 to 30 meters) and contain upwards of 26,000 U.S. galloons (100,000 liters) of water. Some of them can live to be 1,000 years old. Each forms their own micro-ecosystem, which is why they’re locally known as “the mother of the forest.”
