Nature has amazed and will amaze humanity with its creatures. Among plant wonders, one of the most amazing is the banyan tree (photo below), which is visually perceived as a whole forest.
Types of Banyan
This huge plant belongs to ficus and is a distant relative of the most common indoor flower. There are two varieties of it:
- Bengal banyan tree: an epiphytic tree that attaches to another plant at the beginning of development. Seeds fall onto the host tree with the help of birds. The sprout releases a huge amount of aerial roots. The vast majority of them dry up, not growing to the ground. However, those who managed to get to it become the next trunks. At the same time, the crown is expanding. It is this species that is most often implied by the name banyan tree.
- The tree of the second species is called Ficus religiosa. This plant is not an epiphyte . It also grows aerial roots that abut against the ground and support a huge crown. This banyan tree is also grown by lovers of indoor gardening. At home, its height does not exceed a meter or two. From such a "ficus" it turns out just a wonderful bonsai.
Both species are widespread in India and are remarkable, in addition to their original appearance, by the production (with the help of worms) of shellac - a very valuable resin. In addition to India, individual specimens of banyan grow in Indonesia and China.
Why is it so called
The well-known name "banyan" tree received from the British and Portuguese. The aliens noted the love of Indian merchants - banias - to relax under the branches of a huge ficus and called it the merchants tree (in English banias tree). Over time, the tree was lost, and only "banyan" remained. Now this name is known to much more people than the official "Ficus Bengali."
The sacred meaning of the plant
The banyan tree is revered and respected by both Buddhists and Hindus. The former believe that it was under him that Buddha gained enlightenment. In Hinduism, he is a tree of Brahma and a symbol of immortality, eternal life and rebirth. Going down to earth, he ascends to the sky - and so continuously, in a circle, like the wheel of Samsara. For women, banyan symbolizes fertility; in ancient scriptures he is referred to as a world tree. Some sources call it the tree of knowledge, so it is quite possible that Adam and Eve lived under the same tree before the fall. Once wise people came to him for meditation and reflection on the eternal. In addition, banyan tree is a symbol of India.
Note that in some tourist places in India, attempts have been made to "cultivate" banyan groves. Small churches and chapels are placed next to them, benches and paths are equipped under the crowns. However, for the most part, such experiments lead to trouble for the tree itself, since people do not take it carefully. There are cases when, due to their barbarism, part of the tree grove died. The Great Banyan even patrols a kind of environmental police force that protects it from tourists.
Biggest banyan tree
Which tree is considered the champion, argue Bangalore, Sri Lanka and Calcutta. On the one hand, the Sri Lankan plant has already grown 350 main, strengthened and become thick trunks. And he has more than three thousand small ones. On the other hand, the Great Banyan tree in Calcutta is 200-250 years old, its crown in some places reaches 25 meters, and the area of a grove-tree is almost one and a half hectares. However, in the year 25 of the last century, lightning hit the Great Banyan. Its main trunk was split, and it had to be cut. So this instance since then cannot be considered a single tree, it is now recognized as a clonal colony.
In the resort of Goa, the banyan tree has not reached such tremendous size, but it is also available enough to impress tourists. Moreover, it is here, in Arambol, that the legendary banyan tree grows - a tree under which the Beatles allegedly once meditated with the help of hemp. And although the experts of the group several times refuted this myth (the Beatles lived in Rishikesh in India), tourists from all over the world still stubbornly believe in the legend. So the fans of the group, coming to Goa, will certainly visit the treasured tree - take a picture, think about the high one and mentally merge with their idols.