{"id":653039,"date":"2026-08-24T00:27:36","date_gmt":"2026-08-24T00:27:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/653039\/"},"modified":"2026-08-24T00:27:36","modified_gmt":"2026-08-24T00:27:36","slug":"scientists-discover-a-hidden-baobab-species-in-madagascar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/653039\/","title":{"rendered":"Scientists Discover a Hidden Baobab Species in Madagascar"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Grove<\/a>Researchers walk through a grove of large baobab trees in Madagascar. Credit: Nisa Karimi<\/p>\n

Genetic analysis has revealed a distinct baobab species in Madagascar, potentially changing how two threatened tree populations are conserved.<\/strong><\/p>\n

In Madagascar, some baobab trees that appeared to belong to the same species were hiding a deeper genetic difference. Researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison<\/a> have now recognized Adansonia bozy as a distinct species found only on the island, according to a study published in the journal Taxon. The trees had previously been classified as part of another Malagasy baobab species, Adansonia za.<\/p>\n

Although the two species look similar, genetic analysis showed that northern populations formerly assigned to A. za are actually more closely related to other baobabs from northern Madagascar. Separating them into a distinct species could also change how conservation resources are directed toward these endangered trees.<\/p>\n

Baobabs grow naturally in Australia, continental Africa, and Madagascar. Before the new classification, scientists recognized eight species worldwide: one in Australia, one in continental Africa, and six in Madagascar.<\/p>\n

\"Flowers<\/a>A photo of flowers from A. bozy. Baobabs can look very similar to one another, so researchers often look to their flowers to help morphologically differentiate species. Credit: Nisa Karimi<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s surprising that we\u2019re still answering basic biological questions about baobabs, in terms of how many species actually exist on the landscape,\u201d says lead author Nisa Karimi, who worked on the project for her PhD in the former Department of Botany.<\/p>\n

Genetics reveals a hidden baobab species<\/p>\n

Karimi worked with UW\u2013Madison coauthor David Baum, along with researchers from the Missouri Botanical Garden and Iowa State University. Baum, who has studied baobabs for more than 40 years, explained that deciding where one plant species ends and another begins can be complicated. For A. bozy, however, the genetic evidence provided a clear distinction.<\/p>\n

\u201cAny group that we choose to recognize in a taxonomy should be composed of organisms that are more closely related to each other, than to anything outside the group,\u201d says Baum.<\/p>\n

\"Nisa<\/a>Nisa Karimi climbing a baobab tree. Credit: David BaumFieldwork depended on a brief bloom<\/p>\n

Getting the genetic samples required Karimi to travel into remote areas of Madagascar and locate individual baobabs. Because several Malagasy species can look nearly identical from their leaves alone, identifying them in the field required seeing their flowers.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo know what you\u2019re looking at, you have to see them in flower,\u201d Karimi says.<\/p>\n

That creates a narrow window for fieldwork. Each species blooms for only about a month, and the flowers open after dusk, sometimes on branches more than 100 feet above the ground. Karimi therefore had to arrive at the right time and use specialized climbing equipment to ascend the enormous trunks and rappel back down.<\/p>\n

DNA confirms a different family branch<\/p>\n

Once the leaf samples reached Wisconsin, another problem emerged. Grinding the tissues for DNA extraction produced a slimy material because the leaves contained large amounts of polysaccharides.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you\u2019re trying to get long genetic sequences, you need high-quality DNA,\u201d Karimi says. \u201dBut, oftentimes, when you have this sort of slimy tissue, [the DNA] fragments.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Nisa<\/a>It takes some training to get used to the climbing rig. Karimi first learned from Baum on a tree in his Wisconsin backyard before going to Madagascar. Credit: Nisa Karimi<\/p>\n

After considerable trial and error, Karimi developed a way to obtain the high-quality DNA needed for analysis. The researchers then used targeted sequence capture, a standard phylogenetic technique that identifies and sequences hundreds of selected genes so scientists can compare evolutionary relationships among organisms.<\/p>\n

Karimi identified the relevant gene regions within DNA fragments from each sampled organism and then compared those genes among species. Computational methods helped her combine and interpret the hundreds of gene sequences included in the analysis.<\/p>\n

\u201cDespite it sharing morphologies to the species that it was later classified with, [A.bozy] is actually more closely related to two other groups in northern Madagascar than the species it was synonymized with,\u201d Karimi summarizes.<\/p>\n

Reclassification could reshape conservation priorities<\/p>\n

Based on where A. bozy is known to occur in Madagascar, Karimi and Baum believe the newly recognized species is endangered.<\/p>\n

That distinction could have practical consequences because conservation funding in Madagascar often prioritizes threatened and endangered species. Karimi said recognizing A. bozy separately could make additional resources available for its protection. The findings also raise new questions about A. za, which had previously appeared to occupy a much larger range.<\/p>\n

\"View<\/a>Researchers have to climb over a hundred feet up into some baobabs to see the flowers and get an up-close look at their leaves. Credit: Nisa Karimi<\/p>\n

Removing the trees now classified as A. bozy leaves A. za with a smaller known population and distribution, which could ultimately lead to a reassessment of its conservation status.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can\u2019t conserve anything if you don\u2019t know how to describe and name them and understand how they\u2019re related to other things on the landscape,\u201d says Karimi.<\/p>\n

Karimi and Baum suspect that more undiscovered species may remain in remote parts of Madagascar. Their results also indicate that another widespread baobab, A. rubropstipa, may need to be split into separate species. They plan to continue studying Madagascar\u2019s baobabs to clarify the island\u2019s biodiversity and improve efforts to conserve it.<\/p>\n

Reference: \u201cPhylogenomic analysis of Madagascar\u2019s baobabs reveals admixed populations and supports resurrection of a previously described species\u201d by Nisa Karimi, Corrinne E. Grover, Jonathan F. Wendel and David A. Baum, 12 July 2026, TAXON.
DOI: 10.1002\/tax.70176<\/a><\/p>\n

Funding was acquired by DAB, CEG, and JFW from the National Science Foundation grant DEB-1354268.<\/p>\n

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Follow us on Google<\/a> and Google News<\/a>.<\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Researchers walk through a grove of large baobab trees in Madagascar. Credit: Nisa Karimi Genetic analysis has revealed…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":653040,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[77],"tags":[1868,14514,3616,18,19,17,74228,133,22529],"class_list":["post-653039","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-science","tag-biodiversity","tag-botany","tag-conservation","tag-eire","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-madagascar","tag-science","tag-university-of-wisconsin-madison"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/117147654426019199","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/653039","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=653039"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/653039\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/653040"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=653039"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=653039"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=653039"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}