This tree has the most exquisite leaves and beautiful foliage

The beauty of paying attention to the plants around us is that we are forever discovering something new. 

Just the other day I was taking a walk down a neighborhood street with whose flora I thought I was completely familiar when I suddenly espied a plant that, for some reason, I had somehow overlooked. After taking its photograph and activating one of those apps that allow you to immediately identify a plant by uploading its image, I quickly learned that I was in the company of a banyan tree (Ficus benghalensis). 

Native to Pakistan and India, this potentially enormous arboreal specimen, growing up to a hundred feet tall, showed off what I thought were the most exquisite leaves I had ever seen. They had the cleanest, most tailored look of any foliage I could recall. The white veins on each leaf stood out as if they had been meticulously sketched by hand, to say nothing of its contrasting red fruit. And what really grabbed my attention was the pristine condition of each leaf. There was not the tiniest blemish to be seen on any of them. The tree was on the north side of an apartment building which could have explained the perfection of its leaf surfaces, not being subject to hotter southern or western exposures. Also, having been planted in a rather narrow planter adjacent to the sidewalk, its roots clearly benefit from the moisture trapped below the concrete, an impenetrable barrier to soil water loss.

Upon investigation, I learned that the word “banyan” is of Sanskrit origin and means “merchant.” Banyan gained common usage when European explorers in the 17th century saw merchants and traders gathered under the branches of Ficus benghalensis, since that tree had spread throughout Asia and Africa wherever trade routes were to be found and provided ample shade for those who wished to display their wares under its broad canopy. 

Speaking of the banyan canopy, this tree has a most remarkable habit of growth. The forests it inhabits are so dense that, when seeds fall to the ground, the light necessary for them to germinate cannot reach the forest floor. However, banyan seeds, which are excreted by birds that consume banyan fruit, may fall onto tree branches and rest in cracks in their bark. These seeds germinate there and thus, they begin life as epiphytes (epi = upon, phyte = a plant). For context, staghorn ferns, Christmas cactus, most bromeliads, and most orchids are epiphytes, too, growing in pockets created where one branch grows out from another. What happens in the case of the banyan tree is that its seedlings send out aerial roots from their perches on other trees. These roots surround the trunk of their host tree, eventually strangling it, behavior which has given the banyan tree the odious moniker of “strangler fig.” (Ficus is Latin for fig.) Actually, a number of Ficus trees and vines share this characteristic and they are generically labeled strangler figs.

What makes the banyan tree unique is the extent of its canopy, which can grow over an enormous territory as its aerial roots on neighboring trees grow down to the grown, even as the canopy, which grows upon multiple trunks, appears as a single umbrella overall. The largest of these canopies, located in Andhra Pradesh, India, covers nearly 5,000 acres and is 500 years old. 

The banyan tree is available as an indoor plant, requiring the same conditions as the popular fiddle leaf fig (Ficus lyrata). That is, it enjoys lots of light so it must be placed near a west or south-facing window or, if east facing, right up against the window. It probably needs more water than the majority of indoor plants and must be kept away from air conditioning or heating vents since dry air is its doom. Keep its container in a tray of pebbles so that, as water evaporates from the pebbles, the plant will benefit from a bubble of humidity that forms around it.

There is a lot of mystery surrounding “Audrey,” a name that has become synonymous with the banyan tree. I have a theory about the origin of this association. In 1960, the “Little Shop of Horrors” film was produced, which later spawned a musical and a film of the musical. It concerns the story of an exotic plant that is nurtured by blood, dubbed Audrey Jr. The plant goes so far as to devour several characters. Since the banyan tree also swallows up the trees upon which it grows, it might be that whoever started calling this species Audrey had the plant from the play in mind.

California native plant of the week: The vivid scarlet berries and saw-toothed leaves of the native Christmas berry or toyon (Heteromeles arbutifolia) have some similarity to holly berries and leaves. Hollywood owes its name to this resemblance. The first inhabitants of Tinsel Town, emigres from the Eastern U.S. and homesick for their holly, thought they had found it when looking at the toyon. Wander around the Hollywood Hills today, even near the famous Hollywood sign, and you will yet see many native toyon bushes, their red berries, highly attractive to birds, shining brilliantly amid an otherwise pale winterscape. Just be careful not to remove any of their heavy clusters of berries for your own decorative purposes since there is a law that prohibits activity of this kind. A hundred years ago, harvesting toyon branches for Christmas wreaths became so widespread in Los Angeles that the state passed a law forbidding this practice. 

Please send questions, comments, and photos to joshua@perfectplants.com