This is such an interesting discussion. I hope we can keep it up. I wanted to correct one minor misstatement in Bob Olajos' very interesting posting: the Buddha tree is not a banyan, but a fig. The tree under which the Buddha received enlightenment was the Bodh tree, also called Bodhi or Pipal-tree, Ficus religiosa. It is native to the Central and Eastern Himalayas. The actual tree under which the Buddha sat was cloned, and a cutting was planted in Ceylon in 288 BC by a disciple. This tree still grows in the temple of Anuradhapura, and is said to be the oldest cultivated tree. Today, we find the Bodh planted at every Buddhist temple throughout Asia, and some of them are huge trees. I have seen hundreds of these trees in my travels throughout Asia, and find them very attractive. In Kelantan, in northeast Malaysia, there is a large Bodh next to a 30-ft long statue of the reclining Buddha, and this tree is said to be a cutting from the original tree under which the Buddha sat. As a fig, Bodh is distributed by birds, and becomes established in the crowns of other trees, or on roofs. However, it is not a strangling fig. It often has multiple trunks. While short, it becomes massively thickened as stumps sprouts fuse together. Figs are pollinated by a highly specialized wasp, the fig-wasp, generally with a single wasp species responsible for each fig species. Tom Kimmerer Forest Biologist University of Kentucky 105 TP Cooper Bldg Lexington KY 40546 Ph (606)257-1824 Fax (606)323-1031 tkimmer@pop.uky.edu Visit the TreeWeb at http://quercus.uky.edu
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