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banyan tree, Indian banyan

wild banyan tree

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. Shrubs or trees, evergreen, to 15 m. Roots adventitious, aerial, hanging.
Bark

brownish, smooth.

Branchlets

puberulent, glabrescent in age.

grayish, glabrous or sparingly 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 ovate to elliptic or obovate, 3-14 × 1.5-8 cm, nearly leathery, base usually cordate or rounded to obtuse, margins entire, apex obtuse to acute or acuminate;

surfaces abaxially and adaxially glabrous;

basal veins 1(-2) pairs;

lateral veins fewer than 10, if more than 10, 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.

solitary or paired, pedunculate, yellow or red, spotted, globose to globose-ovoid, 8-18 mm diam., glabrous;

peduncles to ca. 15 mm; subtending bracts 2, shortly connate, deltate or broadly rounded, 2-3 mm wide, glabrous or puberulent;

ostiole subtended by 3 bracts, bracts ovate, ca. 1 × 2-3 mm, slightly umbonate.

Ficus benghalensis

Ficus citrifolia

Phenology Flowering all year. Flowering spring–summer.
Habitat Disturbed thickets Tropical hammocks
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; West Indies
[BONAP county map]
Discussion

Ficus citrifolia is the large and graceful banyan tree that is planted for shade around verandas.

(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. carica, F. elastica, F. microcarpa, F. pumila, F. religiosa
Synonyms F. brevifolia, F. laevigata, F. laevigata var. brevifolia, F. populifolia, F. populnea var. floridana, F. populnea var. brevifolia
Name authority Linnaeus: Sp. Pl. 2: 1059. (1753) Miller: Gard. Dict. ed. 8. (1768)
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