Banyan | |
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The Great Banyan in Howrah, Kolkata | |
Banyan figs at Indira Gandhi Zoo Park, Visakhapatnam | |
Scientific classification | |
Kingdom: | Plantae |
Clade: | Tracheophytes |
Clade: | Angiosperms |
Clade: | Eudicots |
Clade: | Rosids |
Order: | Rosales |
Family: | Moraceae |
Genus: | Ficus |
Subgenus: | F. subg. Urostigma |
Species: | F. benghalensis
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Binomial name | |
Ficus benghalensis L. 1753
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Synonyms | |
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Ficus benghalensis, or Ficus indica commonly known as the banyan, banyan fig and Indian banyan,[2] is a tree native to the Indian Subcontinent. Specimens in India are among the largest trees in the world by canopy coverage. It is also known as a "strangler fig" because like many other trees in the genus Ficus it starts out as epiphyte, that is, leaning on another tree that it ends up suffocating.