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banyan tree, Indian banyan

Chinese banyan, Indian laurel

Habit Trees, evergreen, to 30 m. Trees, evergreen, to 30 m.
Roots

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

aerial, abundant, sometimes developing pillar-roots.

Bark

gray.

Branchlets

puberulent, glabrescent in age.

brown, glabrous.

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, obovate to ovate, 3-11 × 1.5-6 cm, thinly leathery, base obtuse to cuneate, margins entire, apex nearly acute to acuminate;

surfaces abaxially and adaxially glabrous;

basal veins 1(-2) pairs;

lateral veins 5-9 pairs, 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, sessile, purple or black, obovoid, pyriform, or nearly globose, 9-11 × 5-6 mm; subtending bracts ovate-lanceolate, 1.5-3.5 mm, apex obtuse to subacute;

ostiole closed by 3 flat, apical bracts 2-2.5 mm wide, umbonate.

Ficus benghalensis

Ficus microcarpa

Phenology Flowering all year. Flowering all year.
Habitat Disturbed thickets Disturbed sites
Elevation 0-10 m (0-0 ft) 0-20 m (0-100 ft)
Distribution
from FNA
FL; Asia (native to Pakistan and India) [Introduced in North America]
[BONAP county map]
from FNA
FL; West Indies; native to Eastern Hemisphere [Introduced in North America]
[BONAP county map]
Discussion

Ficus microcarpa is commonly cultivated in Florida. At press time, word had been received (Michael O'Brien, pers. comm.) that F. microcarpa was recently found in the Los Angeles area, where the pollinating wasp apparently has been present since 1992. Voucher specimens are not yet available.

(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. citrifolia, F. elastica, F. pumila, F. religiosa
Synonyms Urostigma microcarpa
Name authority Linnaeus: Sp. Pl. 2: 1059. (1753) Linnaeus f.: Suppl. Pl., 442. (1782)
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