This article possibly contains original research. (April 2020) |
Banyan | |
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Banyan with characteristic adventitious prop roots | |
Scientific classification | |
Kingdom: | Plantae |
Clade: | Tracheophytes |
Clade: | Angiosperms |
Clade: | Eudicots |
Clade: | Rosids |
Order: | Rosales |
Family: | Moraceae |
Genus: | Ficus |
Subgenus: | F. subg. Urostigma |
Species | |
A banyan, also spelled banian (/ˈbænjən/ BAN-yən),[1] is a fig that develops accessory trunks from adjacent prop roots, allowing the tree to spread outwards indefinitely.[2] This distinguishes banyans from other trees with a strangler habit that begin life as an epiphyte,[3] i.e. a plant that grows on another plant, when its seed germinates in a crack or crevice of a host tree or edifice. "Banyan" often specifically denotes Ficus benghalensis (the "Indian banyan"), which is the national tree of India,[4] though the name has also been generalized to denominate all figs that share a common life cycle and used systematically in taxonomy to denominate the subgenus Urostigma.[5]