National Tree: The Great Banyan tree
National Tree: The Banyan
Botanical Name: Ficus benghalensis L.
Family: Moraceae
Common Names:
Bar, Bat Gaach, Bath, Bot (Bengali); Banyan Fig, Banyan Tree, East Indian Fig Tree,
Indian Banyan, Weeping Chinese Banyan (English); Vad, Vadlo, Vor (Gujarati); Bargad, Barh, Vatavriksh
(Hindi); Aalada Mara (Kannada); Aalamaram, Peraal (Malayalam); Vada, Wad, War (Marathi); Bara
Gacha (Odiya); Nyagrodha, Vat Vriksha (Sanskrit); Aalamaram (Tamil); Marrichettu (Telugu); Bar (Urdu).
Etymology: The common name, banyan, is derived from ‘banias’, Portuguese used this word to refer
specifically to Hindu merchants, who used to conduct their business under this tree. Eventually ‘banyan’
became the name of the tree itself. The generic name, Ficus is a Latin name for figs and the specific
epithet, benghalensis is named after the place of its origin, Bengal.
Description:
A very large, evergreen tree grows up to 20 m tall with spreading branches and many pillarlike aerial, prop roots. Leaves ovate-cordate, entire at margins, rounded at apex, 8 – 20 × 6 – 15 cm,
coriaceous, glarous above, finepubescent beneath, 3 – 5-veined
at base; lateral veins 4 – 6 pairs;
petioles stout, 1 – 5 cm long, with
a broad smooth greasy gland at
apex, ventrally compressed, hairy.
Inflorescence a hypanthodium (fig),
in axillary pairs, sessile, globose,
1.5 – 2 cm, hairy, subtended by 3
minutely hairy bracts, green, turning red on ripening. Flowers minute, 3 kinds: male, female and gall; male
flowers numerous, near the ostiole of fig, pedicellate; tepals 3; stamen 1; female flowers sessile; gall
flowers pedicellate, with a developing insect. Fruit an achene, globose-ellipsoid, creamish-brown.
Flowering & Fruiting: April – July.
Range of Distribution:
Native to India, Bangladesh and Pakistan; occurring naturally in tropical forests
throughout the subcontinent.
Economic Importance: Fiber obtained from bark and aerial prop roots is used for making paper and coarse ropes.
Medicinal Uses:
The aerial prop root is styptic.
It is useful in treating syphilis, biliousness, dysentery and inflammation of liver. Bark is astringent and is also
used in dysentery and diabetes. Its latex is aphrodisiac, tonic, vulnerary, maturant, lessens inflammations,
useful in piles, nose-diseases and gonorrhoea. Latex is externally applied for pains and bruises and as an
anodyne in rheumatism and lumbago. It is also a remedy for toothache. Infusion of young buds is useful in
diarrhoea and dysentery. Leaves are heated and applied as poultice to abscesses. Seeds are considered
cooling and tonic.
Religious Significance:
It is one of the most venerated trees in India. Propagation is through seed,
transplanting and stem-cutting. A banyan tree at Thimmamma Marrimanu in Anantapu
