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banyan tree, Indian banyan

common fig, edible fig, fiku, piku

Habit Trees, evergreen, to 30 m. Shrubs or small trees, deciduous, to 5 m.
Roots

aerial, often descending to ground level and forming pillar-roots Bark of trunks and older branches brown, smooth.

not adventitious.

Bark

grayish, slightly roughened.

Branchlets

puberulent, glabrescent in age.

pubescent.

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 obovate, nearly orbiculate, or ovate, palmately 3-5-lobed, 15-30 × 15-30 cm, base cordate, margins undulate or irregularly dentate, apex acute to obtuse;

surfaces abaxially and adaxially scabrous-pubescent;

basal veins 5 pairs;

lateral veins irregularly 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.

solitary, sessile, green, yellow, or red-purple, pyriform, 5-8 cm, pubescent;

peduncle ca. 1 cm; subtending bracts ovate, 1-2 mm;

ostiole with 3 subtending bracts, umbonate.

Ficus benghalensis

Ficus carica

Phenology Flowering all year. Flowering spring–summer.
Habitat Disturbed thickets Disturbed sites
Elevation 0-10 m (0-0 ft) 0-300 m (0-1000 ft)
Distribution
from FNA
FL; Asia (native to Pakistan and India) [Introduced in North America]
[BONAP county map]
from FNA
CA; FL; MA; NC; SC; Mexico; West Indies; native to Asia [Introduced in North America]
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
Discussion

Ficus carica is known to escape in Alabama, Louisiana, Texas, Virginia, and West Virginia, although no specific localities are documented.

Ficus carica was first known from Caria in southwestern Asia. It is cultivated for its edible fruit and becomes established outside of cultivation only sporadically in the United States. It can sometimes be found persisting around old habitations and old orchards.

(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. americana, F. aurea, F. benghalensis, F. benjamina, F. citrifolia, F. elastica, F. microcarpa, F. pumila, F. religiosa
Name authority Linnaeus: Sp. Pl. 2: 1059. (1753) Linnaeus: Sp. Pl. 2: 1059. (1753)
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