Adansonia gregorii, commonly known as the boab and also known by a number of other names, is a tree in the family Malvaceae, endemic to the northern regions of Western Australia and the Northern Territory of Australia. Names The specific name "gregorii" honours the Australian explorer Augustus Gregory. The common name "boab" is a shortened form of the generic common name "boa", and is the most widely recognised common name It does, however, have a large number of other common names. Similar names include: baobab — the common name for the genus as a whole, but often used in Australia to refer to the Australian species Australian baobab boabab was in common use from the late 1850s (Perhaps the origin of boab) baob Gadawon is one of the names used by the local Aboriginal Australian groups. Other names include larrgadi or larrgadiy, which is widespread in the Nyulnyulan languages of the Western Kimberley. Other names include: bottle tree or bottletree cream of tartar tree gourd-gourd tree gouty stem tree monkey bread tree sour gourd upside down tree monkey bread tree dead rat tree Habitat Endemic to Australia, boab occurs in the Kimberley region of Western Australia and east into the Northern Territory. It is the only baobab to occur in Australia, the others being native to Madagascar and mainland Africa and the Arabian Peninsula. There are various theories as to how the tree got to Australia, with A. Gregorii and Adansoia digitata, its African relative, being very similar genetically. It can grow from sea level up to about in altitude, and is most often found in open forest and rocky areas, but is also seen in monsoon forest. Description As with other baobabs, Adansonia gregorii is easily recognised by the swollen base of its trunk, which forms a massive caudex, giving the tree a bottle-like appearance. Boab ranges from in height, usually , with a broad bottle-shaped trunk, up to in diameter. A. gregorii is deciduous, losing its leaves during the dry winter period and producing new leaves and large white flowers between December and May, up to long. The flowers open at night, and have a calyx about long. The inner surface is densely sericeous. Boabs are pollinated by the convolvulus hawk-moth Agrius convolvuli. The tree's bark has a remarkable property, in that it can maintain inscribed markings for long periods of time, over more than a century. Some