Banyan

This article is about the tree. For other uses, see Banyan (disambiguation).

Banyan
Banyan with characteristic adventitious prop roots
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Eudicots
Clade: Rosids
Order: Rosales
Family: Moraceae
Genus: Ficus
Subgenus: F. subg. Urostigma
Species

See Ficus § Subgenus Urostigma.

The biggest tree

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]

  1. ^ "banian". Dictionary.com Unabridged (Online). n.d. Retrieved 15 March 2016.
  2. ^ Armstrong, Wayne (October 1999). "Stranglers & Banyans". Wayne's Word. Archived from the original on 4 October 2021. Retrieved 26 August 2022.
  3. ^ Laman, Timothy G. (1995). "The Ecology of Strangler Fig Seedling Establishment". Selbyana. 16 (2): 223–9. JSTOR 41759910.
  4. ^ "National Tree". Know India. Government of India. Archived from the original on 13 February 2016. Retrieved 16 January 2012.
  5. ^ Note the use of "Banyan" versus "banyan" in Athreya, Vidya R. (July 1997). "Nature Watch: Trees with a Difference: The Strangler Figs". Resonance. 2 (7): 67–74. doi:10.1007/BF02838593. S2CID 125012527.; also "Aerial-Rooting Banyan Trees". Natural History Guide To American Samoa. University of Washington. Archived from the original on 4 September 2007.