Parenting] Banyan Tree

Family Name - Moraceae (Mulberry) Ficus (Ficus)

Alias - Banyan, Bird Pine, Hubby Whiskers, Fine Leaf Banyan, Bird Banyan, Pine Boy, Pine Banyan, Root Tree, Inverted Banyan Root, Ayazyara'ppu (Paiwan).

Origin - India, Malaysia, Australia, China, Japan, Ryukyu, Taiwan.

Distribution - Ficus is a common plant in Taiwan.

Usage-

1. For green shade, street tree, garden beautification: the tree posture has appreciation value.
2. Wood is used to make furniture, buildings, matchsticks, clogs, etc.
3. The branches and trunks can be used as wood for growing fungus.
4. Medicinal Uses: Root: Bitter, astringent, flat; Leaves: Light, cool. Effects: The root of Qi Sheng: expelling wind and clearing away heat, activating blood circulation. It is used to treat colds, blunt coughs, impenetrable measles, breast moths, and injuries from bruises; leaves: clearing away heat and dampness, activating blood circulation and dispersing blood stasis. Cough, dysentery, diarrhea; bark: diarrhea, scabies, hemorrhoids.
Sore; Fruit: for abscesses; Gum Juice: for cataracts, redness of the eyes, scrofula, psoriasis.

Roots - The main root is thick and strong, usually with part of it extending above ground. Aerial roots hang down from the stem and can be used to help with respiration, or if they go deeper into the soil they become supporting roots and can be used to support the whole tree. It also helps in the absorption of water and nutrients.

Stem - The stem is thick and solid, often with plants attached to it to compete for sunlight. The bark is smooth, the whole plant has white latex, and the stem is much branched.

Leaves- Leaves are alternate, bluntly rounded or cuneate at the base, and ovate or elliptic in shape. Leaf veins are clasped, and the leaf blade is simple and stalked. Leaves are 6-9 centimeters long, 3-4 centimeters wide with a blunt apex, rounded to broadly acute base, leathery or fleshy and papery, entire, smooth and glabrous on both surfaces, with midribs concave on the surface and elevated on the back, shiny green on the surface and slightly lighter on the back, and with a petiole 1-2 centimeters long, smooth and glabrous.

Flowers - Invisible fruits, sessile, axillary, globose, reddish-brown or yellow at maturity, inflorescences are cryptogamous, blooming in spring and fall. Flowers are small, unisexual, growing on the inner wall of fleshy cryptogamous inflorescences. The calyx of male flowers is deeply 4-lobed, lobes linear, 0.1-0.12 centimeters in length, with 1-2 stamens and no pistillode, while the calyx of female flowers is deeply 4-lobed, with the ovary crooked-ovate.

Fruit - Cryptogamous fruits axillary, paired or solitary, globose. Numerous achenes are attached to the inner wall, which are fleshy with dangling seeds. Diameter about 1 cm, sessile, color changes from green to reddish brown at maturity.

Characteristics - A large evergreen tree, up to 20 meters tall or more. It often has overhanging aerial roots. It is used for garden planting or as a street tree, and is the first important bonsai tree species in Taiwan. Because of its wide crown, thick green leaves and branches, it can accommodate people's shade; therefore, it is named "Banyan" tree.