Neems!

Having been away for about a week I've come back to lots of fresh growth on the Baobabs and, more excitingly, two Neem germinations! This is really good stuff, as we hadn't seen any signs of life amongst so much Baobab activity, and I had been beginning to loose hope that any might germinate.

The two Neem seedlings have germinated in pots marked 1 and 3, which would suggest that they are equally happy being soaked for 24 hours, or 15 minutes prior to sowing, or in fact anything in between. They've also gone from seeds to seedlings with a full set of 'true' leaves and another one on the way in what feels like quite a short space of time, certainly relative to the Baobabs anyway.

As you can see, the Neems have very different leaves to the Baobabs. Rather than having large, oval leaves with their pointed tips and smooth edges, they have three or four smaller, serrated leaves branching from a central point to make up a more feathery looking leaf. Also, whereas the cotyledon and 'true' leaves of the Baobab looked quite similar in the end, the difference between the two on the Neem could hardly be greater. The cotyledon leaves look very much like half a green peanut; small, thick, and with none of the serration or featheriness that you can see in their 'true' leaves.

I'm intrigued as to why the leaves of the two plants are so different. Tony Hill, our Programmes Director and general tree knowledge man, says that even young leaves that aren't cotyledons can look quite different to adult leaves, and so the Neem leaves will end up being larger and a bit more sturdy. It will be interesting to see if I can find out how these leaves are best adapted and suited to the conditions of drylands Africa.