The Banyan is one of our most hospitable trees even though it often begins life as a killer. Though it has the capacity to create a forest all on its own it nevertheless needs a miniscule wasp to ensure propagation. And in a strange reversal of roles, its roots grow in the air, hanging down from branches before they miraculously change, into trunks themselves. This is one of our most revered trees & an integral part of our myths & legends.
Common Names: Bar, Bat Gaach, Bath, Bot (Bengali); Banyan Fig, Banyan Tree, East Indian Fig Tree, Indian Banyan, Weeping Chinese Banyan (English); Vad, Vadlo, Vor (Gujarati); Bargad, Barh, Vatavriksh (Hindi); Aalada Mara (Kannada); Aalamaram, Peraal (Malayalam); Vada, Wad, War (Marathi); Bara Gacha (Odiya); Nyagrodha, Vat Vriksha (Sanskrit); Aalamaram (Tamil); Marrichettu (Telugu); Bar (Urdu).
Description: A very large, evergreen tree grows up to 20 m tall with spreading branches and many pillarlike aerial, prop roots. Leaves ovate-cordate, entire at margins, rounded at apex, 8 – 20 × 6 – 15 cm, coriaceous, glabrous above, fine pubescent beneath, 3 – 5-veined at base; lateral veins 4 – 6 pairs;
petioles stout, 1 – 5 cm long, with a broad smooth greasy gland at apex, ventrally compressed, hairy. Inflorescence a hypanthodium in axillary pairs, sessile, globose, 1.5 – 2 cm, hairy, subtended by 3 minutely hairy bracts, green, turning red on ripening. Flowers minute, 3 kinds: male, female and gall; male flowers numerous, near the ostiole of fig, pedicellate; tepals 3; stamen 1; female flowers sessile; gall flowers pedicellate, with a developing insect. Fruit an achene, globose-ellipsoid, creamish-brown.
Importance: Fiber obtained from
bark and aerial prop roots is used for making paper and coarse ropes. Wood is hard and
durable and is used for furniture and housebuilding. Wood is also suitable for paper pulp. Twigs and prop roots are used as tooth
stick. Figs are edible, can be eaten fresh or dried. Application of a mixture of coconut oil and pulp of the fig promotes hair growth.
Uses: The aerial prop root is styptic. It is useful in treating syphilis, biliousness, dysentery and inflammation of the liver. The bark is astringent and is also used in dysentery and diabetes. Its latex is aphrodisiac, tonic, vulnerary, maturant, lessens inflammations, useful in piles, nose-diseases and gonorrhoea. Latex is externally applied for pains and bruises and as an anodyne in rheumatism and lumbago. It is also a remedy for a toothache. Infusion of young buds is useful in diarrhoea and dysentery. Leaves are heated and applied as a poultice to abscesses. Seeds are considered cooling and tonic.
Common Names: Bar, Bat Gaach, Bath, Bot (Bengali); Banyan Fig, Banyan Tree, East Indian Fig Tree, Indian Banyan, Weeping Chinese Banyan (English); Vad, Vadlo, Vor (Gujarati); Bargad, Barh, Vatavriksh (Hindi); Aalada Mara (Kannada); Aalamaram, Peraal (Malayalam); Vada, Wad, War (Marathi); Bara Gacha (Odiya); Nyagrodha, Vat Vriksha (Sanskrit); Aalamaram (Tamil); Marrichettu (Telugu); Bar (Urdu).
Description: A very large, evergreen tree grows up to 20 m tall with spreading branches and many pillarlike aerial, prop roots. Leaves ovate-cordate, entire at margins, rounded at apex, 8 – 20 × 6 – 15 cm, coriaceous, glabrous above, fine pubescent beneath, 3 – 5-veined at base; lateral veins 4 – 6 pairs;
petioles stout, 1 – 5 cm long, with a broad smooth greasy gland at apex, ventrally compressed, hairy. Inflorescence a hypanthodium in axillary pairs, sessile, globose, 1.5 – 2 cm, hairy, subtended by 3 minutely hairy bracts, green, turning red on ripening. Flowers minute, 3 kinds: male, female and gall; male flowers numerous, near the ostiole of fig, pedicellate; tepals 3; stamen 1; female flowers sessile; gall flowers pedicellate, with a developing insect. Fruit an achene, globose-ellipsoid, creamish-brown.
Importance: Fiber obtained frombark and aerial prop roots is used for making paper and coarse ropes. Wood is hard and
durable and is used for furniture and housebuilding. Wood is also suitable for paper pulp. Twigs and prop roots are used as tooth
stick. Figs are edible, can be eaten fresh or dried. Application of a mixture of coconut oil and pulp of the fig promotes hair growth.
Uses: The aerial prop root is styptic. It is useful in treating syphilis, biliousness, dysentery and inflammation of the liver. The bark is astringent and is also used in dysentery and diabetes. Its latex is aphrodisiac, tonic, vulnerary, maturant, lessens inflammations, useful in piles, nose-diseases and gonorrhoea. Latex is externally applied for pains and bruises and as an anodyne in rheumatism and lumbago. It is also a remedy for a toothache. Infusion of young buds is useful in diarrhoea and dysentery. Leaves are heated and applied as a poultice to abscesses. Seeds are considered cooling and tonic.
Unfortunately, this magnificent tree is slowly but surely disappearing from our countryside.
Avenues of banyan trees are not as common as they once were, facing a losing battle against
road widening. Trees with their aerial roots looped off are also a common sight today, leaving the trees sadly mutilated, grotesquely handicapped. In urban parks, they have been replaced by more flashy flowering trees or by others that do not have quite so overwhelming a presence. But if we lose the banyans, we also lose a part of our heritage. It is with good reason that the banyan was chosen India’s National Tree, for while it’s intertwined roots & branches are a metaphor for our unity in diversity, the tree is also present in the warp & weft of our cultural & physical landscape.
0 comments:
Post a Comment