Tropical Plant Database - Plant Details

In the beginning of its life the Indian banyan is an epiphyte growing on another tree where some fig-eating bird deposited a seed. As it grows it starts to produces aerial roots from horizontal branches, which take root where they touch the ground. These "prop roots" will create a forest on their own. A Banyan can get 100 feet tall and, with its massive limbs supported by prop roots, spread over an area of several acres. This banyan has large, thick leathery leaves. Cultivar 'Krishnae' has leaves with an inrolled or funnel-like base. When young, the leaves are brown and hairy and as they mature they become glossy green with only traces of hair and obvious veins. The fruit or fig is orange to red as it matures and contains many very small seeds.
(Chew, W.L. 1989. Flora of Australia.)

According to Ayurveda, The Indian Banyan is astringent to bowels and useful in treatment of biliousness, ulcers, vomiting, vaginal complains, fever, inflammations and leprosy. According to Unani system of medicine, the latex is aphrodisiac, tonic and useful in piles, nose-diseases and gonorrhea. The aerial root is use in syphilis, biliousness, dysentery and inflammation of liver.
(Pankaj Oudhia. Author Notes. 2004. Society for Parthenium Management.)

The Indian banyan tree is planted for soil conservation. The timber is used for furniture and it is suitable for paper pulp. The leaf with a crude protein content of 9.63% is used for fodder. Fruits are traditionally used to prepare Shurbut.
(Pankaj Oudhia. Author Notes. 2004. Society for Parthenium Management.)

Indian banyan is native to a wide area of Asia, from India through Myanmar (Burma), Thailand, Southeast Asia, southern China, and Malaysia. The tree is cultivated in parks and botanical gardens throughout the tropical regions of the world.
(Riffle, R.L. 1998. The Tropical Look.)

The fruit of the Indian banyan tree is yet another examples of the vital interdependency that exist between species, in our fragile environment. The fig "fruit" is actually a globular receptacle with hundreds of small fleshy flowers inside. The figs are pollinated by a tiny specialized wasp that enters the receptacle through a small opening. The pollinator wasp for Ficus benghalensis is Eupristina masoni. Each female flower inside the receptacle then produces a tiny fruit containing seeds. Should the tiny wasp become extinct, this banyan tree would inevitable become extinct also, because without pollination the flowers cannot produce seeds.
(Ramirez, B.W. 1970. Host Specificity of fig wasps (Agaonidae). Evol. 24: 680-691.)

In India, China and Southeast Asia, this tree is considered sacred by Buddhists and Hindus and it is planted around temples. One banyan tree planted 200 years ago in the Calcutta Botanical Garden in India has a crown of over 430 feet in diameter.
(Pankaj Oudhia. Author Notes. 2004. Society for Parthenium Management.)

We currently have 7 herbarium specimens for Ficus benghalensis in our collection. Click on any specimen below to view the herbarium sheet data.

• 068251 - collected by Charles H. Lamoureux in 1962
• 044742 - collected by Lynwood Hume in 1985
• 044741 - collected by Tim Flynn in 1987
• 016655 - collected by Tim Flynn in 1995
• 038081 - collected by Art Whistler in 1995
• 025279 - collected by David H. Lorence in 1997
• 028332 - collected by Tim Flynn in 1999