Digital Garden

Ficus religiosa

Bodhi tree, Peepal tree

Scientific Name- Ficus religiosa 

Common name- Bodhi tree, Peepal tree 

Family – Moraceae 

Habit type – tree 

Leaves 

It has a heart shaped leaf. Leaves are smooth and leathery, broadly ovate, measuring 9-18 cm long and 7.5-12 cm wide, spirally arranged. The leaves have a distinctive tail-like tip, up to 5 cm long. Leaf petioles are slender, 6-10 cm long. Side veins are prominent, 5-9 pairs. Young flushes are pink in color, turning to dark green when mature. 

Bark 

Its bark is light gray and peels in patches, exudation milky. 

Flower 

Flowers minute within the receptacle. Inflorescence a syconia, sessile, axillary, in pairs, obovoid or globose, twig wall thick; basal bracts 3, 3-5 mm long, ovate-obtuse, silky-puberulous, persistent, orifice, closed by 3 apical 

bracts in a disc 2-3 mm wide; internal bristles none; flowers of 4 kinds; male flowers ostiolar, sessile, in one ring; tepals 2, ovate-lanceolate, free, reddish; stamen 1; filaments 0.2 mm; anther oblong, parallel; female flowers sessile; tepals 3-4, linear-lanceolate, free, brownish, glabrous; ovary superior, ovoid-oblong, 1 mm, red-brown, style 1.5 mm, lateral, stigma rounded; gall flowers similar to female. Syconium 4-8 mm across, ripening pink, purple or black; achenes smooth. 

Fruit 

Fruits are borne axillary in pairs, sometimes single, subglobose, measuring 1-1.5 cm in diameter. The fruit of the peepal tree is a fig that is green in the initial stages of development. It turns purple-black in color when ripe. It is 1/2 inch in diameter, circular and compressed. 

FACTS & MEDICINAL USES 

The fruit can be used to treat poison, heart disease and asthma. The bark is used to treat many diseases, such as scabies, ulcers and inflammation. Leaves can be used for wound healing. 

This tree is sacred to Hindus and Buddhists, usually planted around temples.