Ficus benjamina L.
Scientific Name: Ficus benjamina L.
Family: Moraceae
Common Name: Weeping fig
Hindi Name: पुकर
Description: Trees, to 20 m tall, crown wide, d.b.h. 30-50 cm. Bark gray to gray-white, smooth. Main branches producing aerial roots which can develop into new trunks; branchlets gray-white, pendulous, glabrous. Stipules caducous, lanceolate, 0.6-1.5 cm, membranous, glabrous. Petiole 1-2 cm, adaxially sulcate; leaf blade ovate to broadly elliptic, 4-8(-14) × 2-4(-8) cm, ± lea-thery, glabrous, base rounded to cuneate, margin entire, apex shortly acuminate; secondary veins 8-10 on each side of midvein, parallel, anastomosing near margin, indistinct from tertiary veins. Figs axillary on leafy branchlets, paired or solitary, purple, red, or yellow [or red with white dots] when mature, globose to depressed globose or sometimes pear-shaped, 0.8-2 cm in diam., glabrous or pubescent, base attenuate into stalk, sessile; involucral bracts inconspicuous, triangular-ovate, glabrous, persistent. Male, gall, and female flowers within same fig. Male flowers: few, shortly pedicellate; calyx lobes (3 or)4, broadly ovate; stamen 1; filament rather long. Gall flowers: many; calyx lobes (3 or)4 or 5, narrowly spatulate; ovary ovoid, smooth; style ± lateral, short. Female flowers: sessile; calyx lobes 3, shortly spatulate; style ± lateral, short; stigma enlarged. Achenes ovoid-reniform, shorter than persistent style.
Economic Importance:
Used for ornamental purpose. Purifies the Air: NASA Clean Air Study reported that Ficus Benjamina is effective in removing formaldehyde, xylene and toluene.
Medicinal Importance:
The plant is well known due to its medicinal potential.
Its latex and some fruit extracts are used by indigenous communities to treat skin disorders, inflammation, piles, vomiting, leprosy, malaria, nose-diseases and cancer besides the use as a general tonic.