Adansonia digitata leaves

These baobab leaves are in a transition phase: only some of them have five leaflets already, the rest only three, as is typical of juvenile trees. The younger the tree, the fewer the leaflets in the digitate leaf structure, down to simple leaves on saplings. Mature trees have up to nine leaflets.

The shape of the normally stalkless leaflet is elliptic to obovate-elliptic. The central or terminal leaflet is the biggest, those next to the stalk the smallest. The leaflet margin is entire, the base tapering and the tip attenuating narrowly.

Leaflet surfaces are bright green and shiny, their midribs and lateral veins visible. Leaflet hairiness decreases as the leaves age late in the season before they fall (Coates Palgrave, 2002).