The Great Banyan Tree

Feb 24, 2011 6 comments

The Great Banyan Tree located in Acharya Jagadish Chandra Bose Indian Botanic Garden, Howrah, near Kolkata, India, is the widest tree in the world in terms of the area of the canopy it covers. It is estimated to be about 200 to 250 years old and occupies an area of about 14,500 square meters (1.5 hectares).

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With its large number of aerial roots, the Great Banyan Tree 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 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.

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Source: Wikipedia

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Comments

  1. Hard to believe this is just one tree! Incredible!!

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  2. Really amazing and mind blowing...
    It's a Proud for the India.....


    I am interested to know, how to make aerial roots to reach to the ground.....

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  3. The biggest FRUIT TREE of the world (a cashew nut tree - Anacadium occedentale) is located at northeast of Brazil (Parnamirim city). Since 1994 it was included in the Guiness Book.
    http://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maior_cajueiro_do_mundo

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  4. This is really amazing. The government of India should make sure that the days of this tree keep on counting till the end of time. I will like to go see it physically.

    ReplyDelete

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