Siam Villa Garden: Korean Banyan Tree

English Name: Korean Banyan Tree

Scientific Name: Ficus Annulata

Family: Moraceae

Thai Name: ต้นไทรเกาหลี

Native in: Southern China, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia, Indonesia, Philippines.

Banyan, also called Korean banyan or banyan fig, unusually shaped tree of the mulberry family (Moraceae) native to the Indian subcontinent. The banyan reaches a height up to 30 metres (100 feet) and spreads laterally indefinitely. Aerial roots that develop from its branches descend and take root in the soil to become new trunks. One tree may in time assume the appearance of a very dense thicket as a result of the tangle of roots and trunks.

Banyan tree is mainly found in warm and tropical regions worldwide. According to Ayurveda, the banyan tree is used for treating various diseases and infections. The banyan tree has several health benefits. The banyan tree is helpful to manage the glucose level in the blood by managing insulin secretion because of its antioxidant property. Another advantage of antioxidants present in banyan tree is it helps lower bad cholesterol in the body.

During arthritis, the banyan tree is beneficial as it has anti-inflammatory and analgesic property, which helps manage the pain and inflammation. The paste, which is prepared using banyan tree bark, is helpful during gum problems as it has substantial anti-inflammatory properties.

Some Vital Facts about Banyan Trees

• The banyan is considered one of above 750 classes of fig trees and every one of them is pollinated by its species of small wasps which breed only within their partner trees' figs.

• A banyan is considered the strangler fig, and it grows from seeds which land on a different tree. The roots that they send down end up smothering their hosts and grow into branch-supporting and stout pillars that look like novice tree trunks.

• The banyans are acknowledged as the biggest trees in the world regarding the area that they cover. The largest one that is still alive in Andhra Pradesh covers 4.7 acres or 1.9 hectares and is capable of sheltering 20,000 individuals.

• Banyan is an ecological linchpin, and it creates huge crops of figs that sustain numerous species of fruit bats, birds, primates besides other creatures that disperse the seeds of countless other plant species.

• The earlier Europeans who encountered banyan trees happened to be Alexander the Great who came to India during 326 BCE. According to the notes that he took to Greece back informed Theophrastus who was the creator of modern Botany and finally, inspired John Milton, the seventeenth-century English poet to mention in "Paradise Lost" where Adam and Eve stitched the very first cloth from the leaves of the banyan tree.

• For many thousands of years, individuals use banyans as a source of different medicines. Even today in a country like Nepal, individuals use banyan roots, bark, and leaves for treating above 20 problems.