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The Great Banyan is a 
It was recorded to be the largest tree specimen in the world in the ''
The Great Banyan tree is believed to be at least 250 years old, and has been referenced in many travel books, going back to at least the nineteenth century. Early travel writers found it to be noteworthy due to its large size and its unusually high number of prop-trunks. It has survived three great cyclones in 1864, 1867, and 2020 when some of its main branches were broken. With its large number of
File:Acharya Jagadish Chandra Bose Indian Botanic Garden - Howrah 2011-01-08 9724.JPG
File:Acharya Jagadish Chandra Bose Indian Botanic Garden - Howrah 2011-01-08 9723.JPG
File:Great Banyan Tree - Howrah 2011-02-20 1661.JPG
File:Great Banyan Tree - Howrah 2011-02-20 1675.JPG
The Great Banyan Tree
'' Atlas Obscura'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Great Banyan Tourist attractions in Howrah district Individual banyan trees Howrah Trees of India Individual trees in India
banyan
A banyan, also spelled "banian", is a fig that develops accessory trunks from adventitious prop roots, allowing the tree to spread outwards indefinitely. This distinguishes banyans from other trees with a strangler habit that begin life as a ...
tree (''Ficus benghalensis
''Ficus benghalensis'', commonly known as the banyan, banyan fig and Indian banyan, is a tree native to the Indian Subcontinent. Specimens in India are among the largest trees in the world by canopy coverage. It also known as the " strangler fig ...
'') located in Acharya Jagadish Chandra Bose Indian Botanic Garden
The Acharya Jagadish Chandra Bose Indian Botanic Garden, previously known as Indian Botanic Garden and the Calcutta Botanic Garden, is situated in Shibpur, Howrah near Kolkata. They are commonly known as the Calcutta Botanical Garden and prev ...
, Shibpur
Shibpur or Sibpur is a neighbourhood in Howrah city of Howrah district in the Indian state of West Bengal. It is a part of the area covered by Kolkata Metropolitan Development Authority (KMDA).
It is well known for being the location of the ...
, Howrah
Howrah (, , alternatively spelled as Haora) is a city in the Indian state of West Bengal. Howrah is located on the western bank of the Hooghly River opposite its twin city of Kolkata. Administratively it lies within Howrah district, and is th ...
, near Kolkata
Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , the official name until 2001) is the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal, on the eastern bank of the Hooghly River west of the border with Bangladesh. It is the primary business, comme ...
, India. The great banyan tree draws more visitors to the garden than its collection of exotic plants from five continents. Its main trunk became infected by fungi after it was struck by two cyclones, so in 1925 the main trunk of the tree was amputated to keep the remainder healthy. A road was built around its circumference, but the tree continues to spread beyond it.
It was recorded to be the largest tree specimen in the world in the ''Guinness Book of World Records
''Guinness World Records'', known from its inception in 1955 until 1999 as ''The Guinness Book of Records'' and in previous United States editions as ''The Guinness Book of World Records'', is a reference book published annually, listing world ...
'' in 1989.
Botanical classification
Botanically known as ''Ficus benghalensis
''Ficus benghalensis'', commonly known as the banyan, banyan fig and Indian banyan, is a tree native to the Indian Subcontinent. Specimens in India are among the largest trees in the world by canopy coverage. It also known as the " strangler fig ...
'', and belonging to the family Moraceae
The Moraceae — often called the mulberry family or fig family — are a family of flowering plants comprising about 38 genera and over 1100 species. Most are widespread in tropical and subtropical regions, less so in temperate climates; however ...
, the tree is a native of India. The fruit is like a small fig and is eaten by some people. It tastes sweeter than fig. The banyan plant is seen sometimes growing from the little wet dust deposits on buildings because birds carry them around for eating. The fruit is red and when ripe gets softer.
History and description
The Great Banyan tree is believed to be at least 250 years old, and has been referenced in many travel books, going back to at least the nineteenth century. Early travel writers found it to be noteworthy due to its large size and its unusually high number of prop-trunks. It has survived three great cyclones in 1864, 1867, and 2020 when some of its main branches were broken. With its large number of aerial roots
Aerial roots are roots above the ground. They are almost always adventitious. They are found in diverse plant species, including epiphytes such as orchids (''Orchidaceae''), tropical coastal swamp trees such as mangroves, banyan figs (''Fic ...
, which grow from the branches and run vertically to the ground, The Great Banyan is said to appear more like a dense forest than as an individual tree.
The tree survives without its main trunk, which decayed and had to be removed in 1925. A monument has been erected to the dead trunk near the tree's center, but the marker is hardly accessible to visitors, who seldom venture within the tree's thick inner tangle of roots and branches. Visitors generally prefer to access only the perimeter of the tree. The area occupied by the tree is about square metres (about 1.89 hectare
The hectare (; SI symbol: ha) is a non-SI metric unit of area equal to a square with 100-metre sides (1 hm2), or 10,000 m2, and is primarily used in the measurement of land. There are 100 hectares in one square kilometre. An acre is a ...
s or 4.67 acre
The acre is a unit of land area used in the imperial
Imperial is that which relates to an empire, emperor, or imperialism.
Imperial or The Imperial may also refer to:
Places
United States
* Imperial, California
* Imperial, Missouri
* Imp ...
s). The present crown of the tree has a circumference of 486 m. and the highest branch rises to 24.5 m; it has at present 3772 aerial roots reaching down to the ground as a prop root. Its height is almost equivalent to the Gateway of India
The Gateway of India is an arch-monument built in the early 20th century in the city of Mumbai (Bombay), India. It was erected to commemorate the landing of King-Emperor George V, the first British monarch to visit India, in December 1911 at ...
.
The tree lost several prop roots when Cyclone Amphan
Super Cyclonic Storm Amphan was an extremely powerful and catastrophic tropical cyclone that caused widespread damage in Eastern India, specifically in West Bengal and Odisha, and in Bangladesh, in May 2020. It was the strongest tropical cyclon ...
passed through West Bengal on 20 May, 2020.
See also
* Sahabi Tree *Thimmamma Marrimanu
Thimmamma Marrimanu (Telugu: తిమ్మమ్మ మర్రిమాను, lit. "Thimmamma's Banyan Tree") is a banyan tree in Anantapur, located about 25 kilometers from Kadiri, Andhra Pradesh, India. It is probably a specimen of ' ...
(The World's Largest Banyan Tree)
* List of Banyan trees in India
* Midh Ranjha Tree
* Dodda Alada Mara
The Dodda Aalada Mara(ದೊಡ್ಡ ಆಲದ ಮರ), literally translated to Big Banyan Tree, is a giant approximately 400-year-old banyan tree (''Ficus benghalensis'') located in the village of Kethohalli in the Bangalore Urban district of ...
* List of individual trees
The following is a list of notable trees. Trees listed here are regarded as important or specific by their historical, national, locational, natural or mythological context. The list includes actual trees located throughout the world, as well as ...
Citations
References
*External links
The Great Banyan Tree
'' Atlas Obscura'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Great Banyan Tourist attractions in Howrah district Individual banyan trees Howrah Trees of India Individual trees in India