Ficus benghalensis |
Ficus americana |
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banyan tree, Indian banyan |
Jamaican cherry fig, West Indian laurel fig |
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Habit | Trees, evergreen, to 30 m. Roots aerial, often descending to ground level and forming pillar-roots Bark of trunks and older branches brown, smooth. | Trees, evergreen, to 12 m. Roots adventitious, aerial. |
Bark | grayish to brown, smooth. |
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Branchlets | puberulent, glabrescent in age. |
grayish, smooth. |
Leaves | blade ovate, 10-30 × 7-20 cm, leathery, base cordate, margins entire, apex obtuse; surfaces abaxially puberulent, adaxially glabrous; basal veins (2-)3-4 pairs, 1/3-1/2 length of blade, reticulations regular; lateral veins 5-6(-7) pairs. |
blade elliptic to obovate, 2-8 × 1-4 cm, base usually acute or cuneate to nearly obtuse, margins entire, apex acute, obtuse, or short-apiculate; surfaces abaxially and adaxially glabrous; basal veins 1(-2) pairs; lateral veins 6-14 pairs, not uniformly spaced. |
Syconia | paired, sessile, orange or red, depressed-globose, 1.5-2 × 2-2.5 mm, pubescent; subtending bracts ovate, 3-7 mm, puberulous; ostiole closed by 3 flat or nearly umbonate apical bracts 3-4 mm wide. |
paired, red, not spotted, globose, 3-7 mm diam., glabrous; peduncles 2-5 mm; subtending bracts 2, basally connate, ovate, 1-1.5 mm; ostiole ca. 1 mm wide, subtended by 3 bracts, bracts ca. 1 mm, not umbonate. |
Ficus benghalensis |
Ficus americana |
|
Phenology | Flowering all year. | Flowering all year. |
Habitat | Disturbed thickets | Disturbed thickets |
Elevation | 0-10 m (0-0 ft) | 0-10 m (0-0 ft) |
Distribution |
FL; Asia (native to Pakistan and India) [Introduced in North America] |
FL; Mexico; Central America; South America; native to West Indies [Introduced in North America] |
Discussion | The name Ficus perforata Linnaeus (Pl. Surin., 17. 1775) is an illegitimate name, based on the same type collection as F. americana Aublet. Ficus americana is locally escaped from cultivation. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
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Source | FNA vol. 3. | FNA vol. 3. |
Parent taxa | ||
Sibling taxa | ||
Name authority | Linnaeus: Sp. Pl. 2: 1059. (1753) | Aublet: Hist. Pl. Guiane, 952. (1775) |
Web links |