This bearded giant of a tree is native to the Indian sub-continent, its figs a favourite of birds and wasps.
A single tree can grow so huge as to become an entire forest! Yes, as the tree grows and spreads, its branches grow heavy and send down prop roots to support their weight. The prop roots grow thicker and became secondary trunks. Given this attribute, it has been referred to as ‘Akshay Vat’ in Sanskrit (meaning, the Immortal Banyan) and hence, married Hindu women pray to this tree once a year for the long lives of their husbands.
Located in Acharya Jagadish Chandra Bose Indian Botanic Garden, Shibpur, Howrah, near Kolkata, India, the Great Banyan is a single tree that has now spread even beyond the 1080 feet long road built round its circumference, to cover an area of nearly 5 acres. In 1985, the Guinness Book of World Records noted this as the largest tree specimen in the world*. In fact, it looks exactly like a miniature forest, with a thickly tangled, inaccessible core, despite actually being a single tree. And it is not the only one! Large banyans creating one-tree forests can be found all over India.
The Banyan is a source of several medicines, as mentioned in the Ayurveda and propped by recent research as well, which especially emphasize its anti-diabetic activity. It is the larval host plant of the Silverstreak Blue, Common Crow and Map Butterflies. Its pollinating wasp species is Eupristina masoni.