Ficus microcarpa

Ficus microcarpa, also known as Chinese banyan, Malayan banyan, Indian laurel, curtain fig, or gajumaru (ガジュマル), is a tree in the fig family Moraceae. It is native in a range from China through tropical Asia and the Caroline Islands to Australia. It is widely planted as a shade tree and frequently misidentified as F. retusa or as F. nitida (F. benjamina). Ficus microcarpa has been described in 1782 by Carl Linnaeus the Younger. The species has a considerable number of synonyms. In 1965, E. J. H. Corner described seven varieties (and two forms of Ficus microcarpa var. microcarpa) which were regarded as synonyms under the name of Ficus microcarpa in the latest Flora Malesiana volume. Hill's weeping fig was first formally described as a species, Ficus hillii, by Frederick Manson Bailey in the Botany Bulletin of the Queensland Department of Agriculture, based on the type specimen collected in the 'scrubs of tropical Queensland''. In 1965, it was reassigned by E. J .H. Corner as a variety of F. microcarpa, namely F. microcarpa var. hillii. Ficus microcarpa is a tropical tree with smooth light-gray bark and entire oblanceolate leaves about 2-2.5 inches (5–6 cm) long which in Mediterranean climates grows to about forty feet (twelve meters) tall and with an equal spread of crown. Where conditions are favorable for the banyan habit (tropical and humid subtropical) it grows much larger, producing great numbers of prop roots. The largest known specimen is 'Auntie Sarah's Banyan' at the Menehune Botanical Gardens near Nawiliwili, Kauai, Hawai'i which is 110.0 feet (33.53 meters) in height, 250 feet (76.2 meters) in crown spread, and having over one thousand aerial trunks. The F. microcarpa with the thickest trunk is also in Hawai'i, at Keaau Village, Puna District, on the Big Island. Its main trunk is 28.0 feet (8.53 meters) thick at breast height. It is also 195.0 feet (59.44 meters) in limb spread. Only slightly smaller is the 'Banyan at Lomteuheakal' in Vanuatu, a F. microcarpa with a main trunk 27.15 feet thick (26 meters circumference). Ficus microcarpa was widely distributed as an ornamental plant and is one of the most common street trees in warm climates. It is native to Sri Lanka, India, southern China, Insulinde, Ryukyu Islands, Australia and New Caledonia. Outside its original range, the species has been introduced to North Africa, Iraq, Pakistan, Japan and Hawaii. In America, it was introduced in Florida and Central America and the South, where it is commonly grown as an ornamental species. A tropical and subtropical species, the tree requires a warm climate and a humid atmosphere. It can nevertheless withstand temperatures close to 0°C. The species occurs mainly at low elevations, and its natural habitats include tropical rainforests, river edges, coasts, swamps and mangroves. In urbanized areas, trees can grow in cracks, walls, buildings and other masonry elements. It seems more that the species do show good tolerance to soil moisture in some urban pollutants, including sulfur dioxide, the lead and cadmium, as well as salt.