Great Banyan Tree, Calcutta, India

This is the world's widest tree. The circumference of this ancient banyan tree is over one mile long. The whole back part of this photo is a single tree. You can see the people in the distance who are near the tree to give you an idea how large this tree really is.

Totally amazing! Thanks for posting.

-dorothy

just to add something about this giant (taken from web)

The Great Banyan Tree draws more visitors to the garden than its exotic collection of plants from five continents, the plant houses, or the special gardens of bamboos, palms, succulents etc. Botanically known as Ficus Benghalensis L., and belonging to the family Moraceae, the tree is a native of India. The fruit is like a small fig but is not edible and is red when ripe. This tree is over 250 years old and in spread it is the largest known in India, perhaps in Asia. There is no clear history of the tree as to the time of planting etc but it is mentioned in some travel books of the nineteenth century. It was damaged by two great cyclones, 1864 and 1867, when some of its main branches were broken exposing it to the attack of a hard fungus. With its large number of aerial roots which grow from the branches and run vertically to the ground and look like so many trunks, the Great Banyan looks more like a forest than an individual tree. Interestingly enough, the tree now lives in perfect vigour without its main trunk, which decayed and had to be removed in 1925. The circumference of the original trunk at 1.7 m from the ground was 15.7 m. The area occupied by the tree is about 14428.44 sq.m. The present crown of the tree has a circumference of 450m. and the highest branch rises to 24.5 m. It has at present 2880 aerial roots reaching down to the ground.

Long Live the Legend

OK folks, who's making the pot for this one?

Jay Gaydosh wrote:OK folks, who's making the pot for this one?

Thanks for that laugh, Jay. Cheered up an otherwise turdish day.

fiona wrote:..

Thanks for that laugh, Jay. Cheered up an otherwise turdish day.

Funny, I had to read your post twice. I was sure you wrote "turkish". But then it did not make sense to me..

Cheer up,
dorothy

Turdish... the native language of the indigionous people of TURDISHTAN! Located due east of CRAPOVIA.


Tony,

You're gonna need more than two assistants and a compact car to get this Yamadori home!


All joking aside, F. Waheedy, have you got any closeups of the inner workings of this tree? It is fascinating.

Thanks,

Jay

Heres a few more pictures.







Faisal

Absolutely amazing! Thanks.

Jay

This is pretty cool. I would love the opportunity to go inside and find the original trunk, if it still exists....

According to the web, the original trunk has since been damaged by storms, decayed and "unoccupies" a clearing in the midst of the stand.

This is the same Banyan tree which I've had since last summer. It was just a stick with no leaves and barely any roots when I bought it. The leaves are way too big at the moment but they do get smaller. I've been having a tough time bringing it inside and outside almost every day. Just hope all the hard work pays.

The Quaking Aspen tree (Populus tremuloides) forms large stands of genetically identical trees (technically, stems) connected by a single underground root system. These trees form through root sprouts coming off an original parent tree, though the root system may not remain a single unit in all specimens. The largest known fully-connected Aspen is a grove in Utah nicknamed Pando, and some experts call it the largest organism in the world, by mass or volume. It covers 0.43 km2 (106 acres) and is estimated to weigh 6,600 short tons (6,000 t).
Iris

here the sample Banyan
[img][/img]

Very nice Yog Ji. Kahan ki picture hai?

F. Waheedy wrote:Very nice Yog Ji. Kahan ki picture hai?

Usi Sahar ki jaha se Grand Banyan Hai.
this is from a Local Flower Show in kolkata, india ... I clicked lot of fruit and flower plants including some 50 oranges in a 10" pot ..
I have a banyan which is similar to one you have at your home....

one from wikimapia
[img] [/img]

and one for my friends from the same show
[img][/img]