The Banyan Tree

The banyan tree is native to India, Southeast Asia, and Africa. Instead of growing up from the ground like most plants, it is just the opposite. It grows downward!

The tree begins life as an epiphyte on a host tree, gathering its nourishment and water from the air. As it grows, its branches send down roots that reach the ground and develop into new trunks. Eventually, the host tree is smothered as the banyan continues to send out more branches and roots. It grows to an enormous size and looks like a twisted, gnarled group of many trees. But actually it is just one expansive tree. The banyan tree lives and spreads itself out for hundreds of years. With its ability to continually spread by putting down new roots, just one single tree can grow to cover many acres with the strength of a forest.

Here are some pictures of banyan trees in a hilly area of China. They are so strange looking — you don’t know what’s a root and what’s a branch. And these root/branches twist and curve in strange ways. Probably the banyan’s characteristics are exaggerated because of growing on a hill. I’ve seen banyans on flat ground, and they look like a groove of many small trees. But these in the hills are just surreal!