> > This is the world's largest banyan tree. I take a walk every week near > the world's second largest Banyan tree! > PRV > > Subject: The Great Indian Banyan Tree > > > > > > The Great Indian Banyan Tree > The Great Banyan is a banyan tree (Ficus benghalensis) located in Acharya > Jagadish Chandra Bose Indian Botanic Garden, Howrah, near Kolkata, India. It > was the widest tree in the world in terms of the area of the canopy and is > estimated to be about 200 to 250 years old. It became diseased after it was > struck by lightning, so in 1925 the middle of the tree was excised to keep > the remainder healthy; this has left it as a clonal colony, rather than a > single tree. A 330 m long road was built around its circumference, but the > tree continues to spread beyond it. 08 > More images after the break... > > History and Description > The Great Banyan 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, but > it is mentioned in some travel books of the nineteenth century. It was > damaged by two great cyclones in 1884 and 1886, when some of its main > branches were broken and exposed to the attack of a hard fungus. With its > large number of aerial roots, The Great Banyan looks more like a forest than > an individual tree. The tree now lives without its main trunk, which decayed > and was removed in 1925. The circumference of the original trunk was 1.7 m > and from the ground was 15.7 m. The area occupied by the tree is about 14500 > square metres (about 1.5 hectares or 4 acres). The present crown of the tree > has a circumference of about 1 kilometre and the highest branch rises to > about 25 m; it has at present 2880 aerial roots reaching down to the ground. > > Via > __._,_.___ > > > > > > > . > > __,_._,___ > > > > >
