What is a banyan tree?

The banyan tree is a large tree plant of the banyan genus of the mulberry family, also known as the thinking tree. it is said that more than 2000 years ago, Buddha Sakyamuni was cultivated into the right fruit under the banyan tree. In India, no matter Hinduism, Buddhism or Jainism regard the banyan tree as a "sacred tree", and the government protects the banyan tree as a "national treasure". With the introduction of Buddhism into China, the banyan tree also has a far-reaching influence in China.

Banyan trees are attached to other trees when they are young, with a height of 15 to 25 meters and a breast diameter of 30 to 50 centimeters. Bark gray, smooth or slightly longitudinally striate, crown broad. Branchlets grayish brown, puberulent when young. Leaves leathery, triangular-ovate, surface dark green, bright, abaxially green, apex cuspidate, tip extending caudate, base broadly truncate to shallowly cordate, entire or undulate, basal veins Ternate, lateral veins 5-7 pairs. Petiole slender, articulate, as long as or longer than leaf blade. Stipules small, ovate, apex acute.

Figs globose to oblate, 1-1.5 cm in diameter, red at maturity, smooth. Basal bracts 3, ovoid, peduncle ca. 4 × 9 mm. Male flowers, gall flowers and female peanuts on the inner wall of the same figs, few male flowers, born near the mouth, sessile, perianth 2-3-lobed, involute, stamens 1, filaments short. Gall flowers stipitate, perianth 3-4-lobed, ovary smooth, globose, style short, stigma dilated, 2-lobed. Female flowers sessile, tepals 4, broadly lanceolate, ovary smooth, globose. Style slender, stigma narrow. The florescence is from March to April and the fruiting period is from May to June.

The banyan tree likes light, high temperature and humidity, grows rapidly at 25 ℃, and requires a temperature of about 12 ℃ when overwintering. It is not resistant to frost, has strong anti-pollution ability, and is not strict with the soil, but it is better to use fertile and loose slightly acidic sandy loam. The young forest grows rapidly in the tropics (areas with sufficient water). Most of them are cultivated in Guangdong, Guangxi, Yunnan, Japan, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, Bhutan, Sikkim, Nepal, Pakistan and India, but they are wild in the Himalayas from Rawalpindi to Bhutan.

The banyan tree has moderate resistance to sulfur dioxide and chlorine and strong resistance to hydrofluoric acid, so it is suitable to be used as a green tree species in polluted areas, and it is suitable to be used as a green tree species in the courtyard roadway, and the emulsion sap from the branches can produce hard rubber. Branches and leaves can be used as feed for livestock such as elephants and cattle, and there is no obvious difference between wood heartwood and sapwood, so it is suitable to be used as raw materials for chopping boards, packing boxes and fibreboards. Moreover, banyan tree is a traditional Chinese medicine for the treatment of asthma, diabetes, diarrhea, epilepsy, stomach diseases and so on. In addition, it has significant effects on cancer, cardiovascular diseases, neuroinflammatory diseases, neuropsychiatric diseases, parasite infections and so on.

In India, every Buddhist temple requires the planting of at least one banyan tree, pays great attention to the "blood" of the banyan tree, and respects the direct descendants of the holy banyan tree at the time of Buddha's epiphany. According to Hinduism, the banyan tree is an incarnation of Vishnu, one of the three main gods of Hinduism, so it has a particularly important religious color. Hinduism also believes that the banyan tree is the place where the immortals live. Vishnu and his wife, the goddess Lakshmi, live on the banyan tree on the dark night of the first day of every month. Vishnu lives in the roots, Lakshmi lives in the trunk, Narayan lives in the branches, King Harry lives in the leaves, and all the gods live in the fruit of the banyan tree.

With the introduction of Buddhism into China, banyan trees also have a far-reaching influence in China. In the early Tang Dynasty, the monk Shenxiu had a dialogue with his brother Huineng and wrote the poem "the body is a banyan tree, the heart is like a mirror platform, always wipe frequently, do not cause dust." After reading it, Huineng wrote back the song "Bodhi has no tree, and the mirror is not Taiwan. There is nothing at all, where does it cause dust?" . The dialogue between the two brothers to express their meaning by things and to use things to talk about Tao spread widely and made the banyan tree famous.