Banyan

Where it grows

The banyan is native to the Indian subcontinent and is the national tree of India. It thrives across South Asia in monsoon climates, often planted in village squares and beside temples where its enormous shade has been a community gathering point for centuries.

How to recognise it

The leaves are leathery, oval, and dark green, with reddish young growth and prominent veining. The defining feature is the aerial root system: roots descend from horizontal branches, thicken into woody columns when they reach the ground, and become indistinguishable from new trunks. Old trees may have hundreds of such trunks.

Uses

The Great Banyan in the Acharya Jagadish Chandra Bose Indian Botanic Garden near Kolkata covers about 1.5 hectares with over 3,500 prop roots. Banyans yield latex, medicinal bark, edible figs, and the historically important lac from a scale insect that lives on the bark.

In culture

Hindu tradition holds the banyan sacred, often planting it alongside the peepal (Ficus religiosa). The Buddha is said to have spent his fifth week of meditation after enlightenment under a banyan.