500 BC. In Rome, King Tarquin the Proud has been sent into exile and there’s a brand new Roman republic. At around the same time, in what is now Zimbabwe, an elephant defecates after feasting on baobab fruits. A seed sprouts in the dung.

That tree grew for nearly 2500 years. It grew as the Roman Empire rose and fell , and the Kingdom of Zimbabwe flourished and collapsed, and as British colonisers came and left.  The Panke baobab was the oldest flowering tree in …