Technical information
Family: MORACEAE
Genus: Ficus
Species: Ficus benghalensis L.
Diameter at chest height: Approximately 6 meters
Crown diameter: Approximately 46 meters
Origin: India (West Bengal Region)
Popular names: White fig, Banyan tree, Banyan
Approximate age: 120 to 150 years
The Banyan Tree located inside the Restaurant A Figueira Rubaiyat has much more than beauty and rarity: it is also a witness to the history of the city of São Paulo. Having been planted in the 1890s, still as a small seedling, Figueira saw its direct surroundings change landscape, from a beautiful and green farm, to one of the gastronomic centers of a city that developed rapidly, gaining the first period of more intense urbanization the nickname “Paulicéia Desvairada”; Figueira was a place of entertainment and shelter for the neighborhood's elders, who to this day fondly remember the green and rural times of the neighborhood, and the tree itself.
In India there are very interesting gastronomic recipes using banyan “figs”;
Sometimes, throughout its growth, different trees of the Ficusbenghalensis species merge, forming true forests. The largest of them, in India, is the size of more than 80 football fields.
The first Europeans to enjoy the shade and shelter of the banyan tree were Alexander the Great and his army, around 326 BC;
There is a legendary banyan tree in the state of Uttar Pradesh, which is said to be immortal.
