Ficus Benghalensis - Large Specimens

Large Specimens

The giant banyan trees of India are the largest trees in the world, as measured by canopy coverage. In these trees, a network of interconnected stems and branches has grown entirely by vegetative, "branching" propagation. One individual, Thimmamma Marrimanu, in Andhra Pradesh, covers 19,107 square metres, making it the largest single tree by two-dimensional canopy coverage area. This tree is also the world's largest known tree by a related measure, perimeter length, with a distance of 846 metres required to walk around the edge of the canopy. Thimmama Marrimanu is likely also the world's largest tree by three dimensional canopy volume.

The Great Banyan in the Indian Botanic Garden, Howrah, is considered to be one of the largest trees in the world in terms of area covered. Two other well known large trees of this species are one in Uttar Pradesh near Varanasi and another in Karnataka near Bangalore called Dodda Alada Mara. The circumference of the whole complex of trees grown from the one central ancestor - still very much alive and all connected to it by the roots visible well over human height - is measured in kilometers. On the banks of the Narmada stood a celebrated specimen, supposed to be that described by Nearchus, the admiral of Alexander the Great. This tree once covered an area so immense, that it was known to shelter no fewer than 7000 men, and though much reduced in size by the destructive power of floods, the remainder was described by James Forbes (1749–1819) in his Oriental Memoirs (1813–1815) as nearly 2000 ft. in circumference, while the trunks large and small exceeded 3000 in number.