Banyan


A banyan, also spelled banian, is a fig that develops accessory trunks from adjacent prop roots, allowing the tree to spread outwards indefinitely. This distinguishes banyans from other trees with a strangler habit that begin life as an epiphyte, i.e. a plant that grows on another plant, when its seed germinates in a crack or crevice of a host tree or edifice. "Banyan" often specifically denotes Ficus benghalensis, which is the national tree of India, though the name has also been generalized to denominate all figs that share a common life cycle and used systematically in taxonomy to denominate the subgenus Urostigma.

Characteristics

Like other fig species, banyans also bear their fruit in the form of a structure called a "syconium". The syconium of Ficus species supply shelter and food for fig wasps and the trees depend on the fig wasps for pollination.
Frugivore birds disperse the seeds of banyans. The seeds are small, and because most banyans grow in woodlands, a seedling that germinates on the ground is unlikely to survive. However, many seeds fall on the branches and stems of other trees or on human edifices, and when they germinate they grow roots down toward the ground and consequently may envelop part of the host tree or edifice.
This is colloquially known as a "strangler" habit, which banyans share with a number of other tropical Ficus species, as well as some other unrelated genera such as Clusia and Metrosideros.
The leaves of the banyan tree are large, leathery, glossy, green, and elliptical. Like most figs, the leaf bud is covered by two large scales. As the leaf develops the scales abscise. Young leaves have an attractive reddish tinge.
Older banyan trees are characterized by aerial prop roots that mature into thick, woody trunks, which can become indistinguishable from the primary trunk with age. These aerial roots can become very numerous. The Great Banyan of Kolkata, which has been tracked carefully for many years, currently has 2,880 supplementary trunks. Such prop roots can be sixty feet in height. Old trees can spread laterally by using these prop roots to grow over a wide area. In some species, the prop roots develop over a considerable area that resembles a grove of trees, with every trunk connected directly or indirectly to the primary trunk. The topology of this massive root system inspired the name of the hierarchical computer network operating system "Banyan VINES".
In a banyan that envelops its host tree, the mesh of roots growing around the latter eventually applies considerable pressure to and commonly kills it. Such an enveloped, dead tree eventually decomposes, so that the banyan becomes a "columnar tree" with a hollow, central core. In jungles, such hollows are very desirable shelters to many animals.
From research, it is known that the longevity of banyan tree is due to multiple signs of adaptive evolution of genes.

Etymology

The name was originally given to F. benghalensis and comes from India, where early European travelers observed that the shade of the tree was frequented by Banyans.

Notable species

F. benghalensis or Indian banyon is the namesake of the genus. Over time, the name became generalized to all strangler figs of the Urostigma subgenus.Ficus microcarpa, which is native to Pakistan, India, Nepal, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Sri Lanka, China, Taiwan, Southeast Asia, New Guinea, Australia, Ryukyu Islands and New Caledonia, is a significant invasive species elsewhere.

In horticulture

Due to the complex structure of the roots and extensive branching, the banyan is used as a subject specimen in penjing and bonsai. The oldest living bonsai in Taiwan is a 240-year-old banyan tree housed in Tainan.

In culture

Religion and mythology

Banyan trees figure prominently in several Asian and Pacific religions and myths, including the following:

Notable banyan trees

  • Thimmamma Marrimanu is a banyan tree in Anantapur, located circa from the town of Kadiri in the state of Andhra Pradesh, India. It is recognized as the world's largest banyan tree. It is present in the Indian Botanical Gardens and is more than 550 years old. Its canopy covers
  • One of the largest trees, the Great Banyan is found in Kolkata, India. Its canopy covers
  • Another such tree, Dodda Aalada Mara as in "Big Banyan Tree", is found in the village of Ramohalli, on the outskirts of Bangalore, India; it has a spread of circa 2.5 acres.
  • The Iolani Palace banyans in Honolulu, Hawaii. In the 1880s Queen Kapiolani planted two banyan trees within the Iolani Palace grounds. These trees have since grown into large groupings of trees on the old historic palace grounds.
  • Maui, Hawaii has the Banyan tree in Lahaina planted by William Owen Smith on 24 April 1873, in Lahaina's Courthouse Square to mark the 50th anniversary of the arrival of the first American Protestant mission. In 2023, it had grown to cover two-thirds of an acre, but the tree was damaged by the 2023 Hawaii wildfires from 8–9 August which also severely damaged the town of Lahaina, and roughly half its former canopy survived the fire.
  • One large banyan tree, Kalpabata, is inside the premises of Jagannath Temple in Puri. It is considered sacred by the devotees and is supposed to be more than 500 years old.
  • A large banyan tree lives in Cypress Gardens, at the Legoland theme park located in Winter Haven, Florida. It was planted in 1939 in a 5-gallon bucket.
  • , located in the Theosophical Society Campus in Adayar, Chennai, India, is around 450 years old.
  • The banyan tree from Miary, Madagascar which is said to be 1,700 years old.

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