The first sign that the tree was in trouble was the scent \u2014 a musty odor that cut through the warm forest air.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt smelled like mushrooms but worse, like decomposition,\u201d said Cyrille Cornu, a French researcher who visited the tree, an ancient baobab that locals call Tsitakakantsa, last October in southwest Madagascar. Approaching the massive trunk in the island nation\u2019s Andombiry Forest, Mr. Cornu\u2019s heart sank. A dark, foul-smelling liquid was seeping from the base of the tree.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was surprised because I never saw this before,\u201d said Mr. Cornu, who specializes in baobabs and has visited the tree several times over the last 15 years. He thought to himself: \u201cSomething is wrong.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tsitakakantsa, one of the largest and oldest baobab trees in Madagascar, is dying, according to experts and local stewards. Having survived centuries, it appears to have entered a final phase in which it will buckle, collapse and eventually disintegrate. It could take months, maybe longer. Eventually, only a patch of stained earth \u2014 like a shadow in the soil \u2014 will remain.<\/p>\n
To the surrounding forest community, which has long revered Tsitakakantsa, its demise represents the loss of a spiritual anchor. To the wider world of scientists and nature lovers, it underscores the fragility of even the most enduring pillars of nature in the face of rapid environmental change.<\/p>\n
Onja Razanamaro, an expert on baobab trees and a researcher at the Tsimbazaza Zoo & Botanical Gardens in Antananarivo, Madagascar\u2019s capital, described the tree as a constant presence in the landscape, a subject of almost filial devotion for the local people.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou can\u2019t imagine one day your parent will not be with you,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Baobabs, with their colossal, mottled trunks and canopies that reach to the sky like upturned roots, have been part of the landscape for millions of years in Madagascar, a species-rich island off the east coast of Africa. Unlike rigid oaks and pines, baobab trees have spongy wood that is made up mostly of water, and many experts consider them giant succulents. The eight species that appear in Madagascar, Africa and Australia can live for hundreds, sometimes thousands, of years<\/a>.<\/p>\n Throughout Madagascar, baobabs play many roles in the communities that surround them. They may be used as a touchstones in religious ceremonies. They can have more practical uses, including as cisterns for storing water. They also support the livelihoods of thousands of people who harvest baobab fruit or rely on the tourism they generate.<\/p>\n Tsitakakantsa is a member of one of the largest species of baobab (its name in a local dialect of Malagasy roughly means, \u201cIf you sing on one side of the trunk, your singing cannot be heard from the other side\u201d). It began to draw attention in 2018 after the death of Tsitakakoike, a baobab tree sacred to the nearby village of Andombiry, whose residents chose Tsitakakantsa as its spiritual successor, Mr. Cornu said.<\/p>\n