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banyan tree, Indian banyan

Jamaican cherry fig, West Indian laurel fig

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.

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
from FNA
FL; Asia (native to Pakistan and India) [Introduced in North America]
[BONAP county map]
from FNA
FL; Mexico; Central America; South America; native to West Indies [Introduced in North America]
[BONAP county map]
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.)

Source FNA vol. 3. FNA vol. 3.
Parent taxa Moraceae > Ficus Moraceae > Ficus
Sibling taxa
F. americana, F. aurea, F. benjamina, F. carica, F. citrifolia, F. elastica, F. microcarpa, F. pumila, F. religiosa
F. aurea, F. benghalensis, F. benjamina, F. carica, F. citrifolia, F. elastica, F. microcarpa, F. pumila, F. religiosa
Name authority Linnaeus: Sp. Pl. 2: 1059. (1753) Aublet: Hist. Pl. Guiane, 952. (1775)
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