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Plant

Indian banyan

Ficus benghalensis

हिन्दी: बरगद, वट

IUCN: Least Concern
Indian banyan (Ficus benghalensis) photographed by Devendra Bhardwaj

Image: Devendra Bhardwaj · iNaturalist · CC BY-NC 4.0 · Samod, Rajasthan · Resized

Scientific name
Ficus benghalensis
Hindi name
बरगद, वट
Family
Moraceae, order Rosales
Group
Plant
Conservation status
Least Concern

A forest in a single tree.

  • Spot it Hanging aerial roots, a huge crown and small round red figs.
  • Home Villages, roadsides and temples.
  • Food web Birds, bats, monkeys and squirrels feed on its figs.
  • Why it matters A keystone tree: its figs feed birds, bats and monkeys through the year, and its shade shelters countless creatures.

Read more: Ficus benghalensis on Wikipedia

Sources and credits

Records and field notes

  • RajasthanDevendra Bhardwaj has 2 verified records of this species on iNaturalist, between 2011 and 2023, in Samod and Ajmer Division.[20]

Sources

  1. IUCN Red List of Threatened Species (species pages linked on each entry) (database). Global conservation status. Every species page was opened.
  2. Devendra Bhardwaj. iNaturalist observations and notes, with place and date (inaturalist.org/people/devendrabhardwaj) (field record). The observer's own dated records and notes, with places. Statements in his notes are his own and were not independently checked by KJVF.
  3. GBIF Backbone Taxonomy and GBIF species data (family, order, Hindi names, IUCN category) (database). Open biodiversity data. Used for classification, Hindi common names and the IUCN category where one is given.
  4. Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (opening lines of each species article, CC BY-SA 4.0). The link on each entry goes to the article (reference). Not peer reviewed. Only the opening description is used, and statements about origin or medicinal use are left out.
  5. Short introductions and key points written with AI help (Google Gemini and Claude) and checked against GBIF where possible (reference). AI-assisted text for general readers. Please check important details before relying on them.

The tag before each record shows the place it was checked for.

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