Moraceae
Ficus

Ficus benghalensis L.

First published in Sp. Pl.: 1059 (1753)
This species is accepted
The native range of this species is Indian Subcontinent, Andaman Islands. It is a tree and grows primarily in the seasonally dry tropical biome. It is used as animal food and a medicine, has environmental uses and social uses and for food.

Distribution

Native to:

Andaman Is., Assam, Bangladesh, East Himalaya, India, Laccadive Is., Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka

Introduced into:

Afghanistan, Chagos Archipelago, Florida, Gilbert Is., Iran, Jamaica, Laos, Marianas, Mauritius, Myanmar, Palestine, Queensland, Rodrigues, Réunion, St.Helena, Trinidad-Tobago, Vietnam

Synonyms

Homotypic Synonyms

Heterotypic Synonyms

Classification

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Publications

POWO follows these authorities in accepting this name:

  • Acevedo-Rodríguez, P. & Strong, M.T. (2012). Catalogue of seed plants of the West Indies. Smithsonian Contributions to Botany 98: 1-1192.
  • Baksh-Comeau, Y., Maharaj, S.S., Adams, C.D., Harris, S.A., Filer, D.L. & Hawthorne, W.D. (2016). An annotated checklist of the vascular plants of Trinidad and Tobago with analysis of vegetation types and botanical 'hotspots'. Phytotaxa 250: 1-431.
  • Balkrishna, A. (2018). Flora of Morni Hills (Research & Possibilities): 1-581. Divya Yoga Mandir Trust.
  • Barooah, C. & Ahmed, I. (2014). Plant diversity of Assam. A checklist of Angiosperms and Gymnosperms: 1-599. Assam science technology and environment council, India.
  • Bosser, J., Cadet, T., Guého, J. & Marais, W. (eds.) (1985). Flore des Mascareignes 161-169: 1. IRD Éditions, MSIRI, RBG-Kew, Paris.
  • Chaudhary, L.B., Sudhakar, J.V., Kumar, A., Bajpai, O., Tiwari, R. & Murthy, G.V.S. (2012). Synopsis of the genus Ficus L. (Moraceae) in India. Taiwania 57: 193-216.
  • Dufour-Dror, J.M. & Fragman-Sapir, O. in Dufour-Dror, J.M. (2019). Alien Plant Species in Natural & Disturbed Areas in Israel. Alien Invasive Plants in Israel, ed. 2: 1-246. Dan Perry Pub., Nature & Parks Authority, Israel Ministry of Environmental Protection.
  • Flora of North America Editorial Committee (1997). Flora of North America North of Mexico 3: 1-590. Oxford University Press, New York, Oxford.
  • Fosberg, F.R., Sachet, M.-H., Oliver, R. (1979). A geographical checklist of the Micronesian Dicotyledonae. Micronesica; Journal of the College of Guam 15: 41-295.
  • George, A.S. (ed.) (1989). Flora of Australia 3: 1-219. Australian Government Publishing Service, Canberra.
  • Ghafoor, A. (1985). Flora of Pakistan 171: 1-54. Department of Botany, University of Karachi, Karachi.
  • Govaerts, R. (2001). World Checklist of Seed Plants Database in ACCESS E-F: 1-50919.
  • Grierson, A.J.C. & Long, D.G. (1983). Flora of Bhutan 1(1): 1-186. Royal Botanic Gardens, Edinburgh.
  • Kotiya, A., Solanki, Y. & Reddy, G.V. (2020). Flora of Rajasthan: 1-769. Rajasthan state biodiversity board.
  • Lambdon, P. (2012). Flowering plants & ferns of St Helena: 1-624. Pisces publications for St Helena nature conservation group.
  • Lê, T.C. (2003). Danh lục các loài thực vật Việt Nam 2: 1-1203. Hà Nội : Nhà xuất bản Nông nghiệp.
  • Newman, M., Ketphanh, S., Svengsuksa, B., Thomas, P., Sengdala, K., Lamxay, V. & Armstrong, K. (2007). A checklist of the vascular plants of Lao PDR: 1-394. Royal Botanic Gardens, Edinburgh.
  • Pusalkar, P.K., Mao, A.A. & Inge, P. (eds.) (2022). Flora of India 24: 1-688. Botanical Survey of India.
  • Sheppard, C.R.C. & Seaward, M.R.D. (eds.) (1999). Ecology of the Chagos archipelago: 1-350. Westbury Academic & Scientific Publishing, Otley.
  • Sikarwar, R.L.S. (2014). Angiosperm diversity assessment of Chitrakootthe legendary place of Vindhyan range, India. Journal of Economic and Taxonomic Botany 38: 563-619.

Catálogo de Plantas y Líquenes de Colombia

  • Bernal, R., Gradstein, S.R. & Celis, M. (eds.). 2015. Catálogo de plantas y líquenes de Colombia. Instituto de Ciencias Naturales, Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Bogotá. http://catalogoplantasdecolombia.unal.edu.co

Kew Species Profiles

  • Huxley, A., Griffiths, M. & Levy, M. (eds) (1992). The New Royal Horticultural Society Dictionary of Gardening, 4 vols. Macmillan, London.
  • National Institute of Science Communication (1948-1976). The Wealth of India: a Dictionary of Indian Raw Materials and Industrial Products. Council of Scientific & Industrial Research, New Delhi, 11 vols.
  • Plant Cultures website.
  • Sosef, M. S. M., Hong, L.T. and Prawirohatmodjo (eds) (1998). Plant Resources of South-East Asia, No. 5(3). Timber trees: lesser-known timbers. Backhuys, Leiden.
  • Usher, G. (1974). A Dictionary of Plants Used by Man. Constable, London.

Kew Backbone Distributions

  • Acevedo-Rodríguez, P. & Strong, M.T. (2012). Catalogue of seed plants of the West Indies. Smithsonian Contributions to Botany 98: 1-1192.
  • Ananda Rao, T. & Ellis, J.L. (1995). Flora of Lakshadweep islands off the Malabar coast, peninsular India, with emphasis on phytogeographical distribution of plants. Journal of Economic and Taxonomic Botany 19: 235-250.
  • Baksh-Comeau, Y., Maharaj, S.S., Adams, C.D., Harris, S.A., Filer, D.L. & Hawthorne, W.D. (2016). An annotated checklist of the vascular plants of Trinidad and Tobago with analysis of vegetation types and botanical 'hotspots'. Phytotaxa 250: 1-431.
  • Barooah, C. & Ahmed, I. (2014). Plant diversity of Assam. A checklist of Angiosperms and Gymnosperms: 1-599. Assam science technology and environment council, India.
  • Bosser, J., Cadet, T., Guého, J. & Marais, W. (eds.) (1985). Flore des Mascareignes 161-169: 1. IRD Éditions, MSIRI, RBG-Kew, Paris.
  • Broicz, K. (1982). Flora Iranica 153: 1-15. Akademische Druck- u. Verlagsanstalt, Graz.
  • Chaudhary, L.B., Sudhakar, J.V., Kumar, A., Bajpai, O., Tiwari, R. & Murthy, G.V.S. (2012). Synopsis of the genus Ficus L. (Moraceae) in India. Taiwania 57: 193-216.
  • Dufour-Dror, J.M. & Fragman-Sapir, O. in Dufour-Dror, J.M. (2019). Alien Plant Species in Natural & Disturbed Areas in Israel. Alien Invasive Plants in Israel, ed. 2: 1-246. Dan Perry Pub., Nature & Parks Authority, Israel Ministry of Environmental Protection.
  • Flora of North America Editorial Committee (1997). Flora of North America North of Mexico 3: 1-590. Oxford University Press, New York, Oxford.
  • Fosberg, F.R. (1957). The Maldive islands, Indian Ocean. Atoll Research Bulletin 58: 1-37.
  • Fosberg, F.R., Sachet, M.-H., Oliver, R. (1979). A geographical checklist of the Micronesian Dicotyledonae. Micronesica; Journal of the College of Guam 15: 41-295.
  • George, A.S. (ed.) (1989). Flora of Australia 3: 1-219. Australian Government Publishing Service, Canberra.
  • Kotiya, A., Solanki, Y. & Reddy, G.V. (2020). Flora of Rajasthan: 1-769. Rajasthan state biodiversity board.
  • Kress, W.J., DeFilipps, R.A., Farr, E. & Kyi, D.Y.Y. (2003). A Checklist of the Trees, Shrubs, Herbs and Climbers of Myanmar. Contributions from the United States National Herbarium 45: 1-590. Smithsonian Institution.
  • Lambdon, P. (2012). Flowering plants & ferns of St Helena: 1-624. Pisces publications for St Helena nature conservation group.
  • Lê, T.C. (2003). Danh lục các loài thực vật Việt Nam 2: 1-1203. Hà Nội : Nhà xuất bản Nông nghiệp.
  • Newman, M., Ketphanh, S., Svengsuksa, B., Thomas, P., Sengdala, K., Lamxay, V. & Armstrong, K. (2007). A checklist of the vascular plants of Lao PDR: 1-394. Royal Botanic Gardens, Edinburgh.
  • Sheppard, C.R.C. & Seaward, M.R.D. (eds.) (1999). Ecology of the Chagos archipelago: 1-350. Westbury Academic & Scientific Publishing, Otley.

Useful Plants and Fungi of Colombia

  • Bernal, R., Gradstein, S.R., & Celis, M. (eds.). (2020). Catálogo de Plantas y Líquenes de Colombia. v1.1. Universidad Nacional de Colombia. Dataset/Checklist. https://doi.org/10.15472/7avdhn
  • Diazgranados et al. (2021). Catalogue of plants of Colombia. Useful Plants and Fungi of Colombia project. In prep.
  • Diazgranados, M., Allkin, B., Black N., Cámara-Leret, R., Canteiro C., Carretero J., Eastwood R., Hargreaves S., Hudson A., Milliken W., Nesbitt, M., Ondo, I., Patmore, K., Pironon, S., Turner, R., Ulian, T. (2020). World Checklist of Useful Plant Species. Produced by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. Knowledge Network for Biocomplexity.
  • FPI (2021). Food Plants International. https://fms.cmsvr.com/fmi/webd/Food_Plants_World?homeurl=https://foodplantsinternational.com/plants/
  • GBIF.org (2021). GBIF species matching tool. https://www.gbif.org/tools/species-lookup
  • GRIN (2021). Germplasm Resources Information Network from the United States Department of Agriculture. https://www.ars-grin.gov/
  • Jansen, P., Lemmens, R., Oyen, L., Siemonsma, J., Stavast, F. & Van Valkenburg, J. (1991) Plant Resources of South-East Asia. Basic list of species and commodity grouping. Final version. Pudoc, Wageningen.
  • Medicinal Plant Names Services (MPNS) v.10 (2021); http://mpns.kew.org/
  • PROTA (2021). Plants Resources of Tropical Africa. https://prota4u.org/database/
  • RBG, Kew (2021). Kew Economic Botany Collection. https://ecbot.science.kew.org/
  • Willis, K.J. (ed.) (2017). State of the World’s Plants 2017. Report. Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.

Other Data

Other Kew resources that provide information on this taxon:

Date Reference Identified As Barcode Type Status Has image?
India K:SPC-66445.000 No
K:SPC-29047.299 No
s.coll. [Cat. no. 4560] Ficus indica K001039326 Unknown Type Material Yes
s.coll. [Cat. no. 4560] Ficus indica K001039327 Unknown Type Material Yes
s.coll. [Cat. no. 4560] Ficus indica K001039330 Unknown Type Material Yes
s.coll. [Cat. no. 4560] Ficus indica K001039331 Unknown Type Material Yes
s.coll. [Cat. no. 4560] Ficus indica K001039319 Unknown Type Material Yes
s.coll. [Cat. no. 4560] Ficus indica K001039318 Unknown Type Material Yes
s.coll. [Cat. no. 4560] Ficus indica K001039321 Unknown Type Material Yes
s.coll. [Cat. no. 4560] Ficus indica K001039329 Unknown Type Material Yes
Wallich, N. [Cat. no. 4560] Nepal Ficus indica K001039328 Unknown Type Material Yes
s.coll. [Cat. no. 4560] Ficus indica K001039325 Unknown Type Material Yes
s.coll. [Cat. no. 4560] India Ficus indica K001039322 Unknown Type Material Yes
s.coll. [Cat. no. 4560] Bangladesh Ficus indica K001039324 Unknown Type Material Yes
s.coll. [Cat. no. 4560] Bangladesh Ficus indica K001039323 Unknown Type Material Yes
s.coll. [Cat. no. 4560] Ficus indica K001039317 Unknown Type Material Yes
s.coll. [Cat. no. 4560] Ficus indica K001039320 Unknown Type Material Yes

Sources

  • Angiosperm Extinction Risk Predictions v1

    • Angiosperm Threat Predictions
    • http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0

  • Catálogo de Plantas y Líquenes de Colombia

    • http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0

  • Colombian resources for Plants made Accessible

    • ColPlantA 2021. Published on the Internet at http://colplanta.org
    • https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

  • Herbarium Catalogue Specimens

    • 'The Herbarium Catalogue, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. Published on the Internet http://www.kew.org/herbcat [accessed on Day Month Year]'. Please enter the date on which you consulted the system.
    • Digital Image © Board of Trustees, RBG Kew http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

  • IUCN Categories

    • IUCN Red List of Threatened Species
    • http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0

  • Kew Backbone Distributions

    • The International Plant Names Index and World Checklist of Vascular Plants 2025. Published on the Internet at http://www.ipni.org and https://powo.science.kew.org/
    • © Copyright 2023 World Checklist of Vascular Plants. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0

  • Kew Living Collection Database

    • Common Names from Plants and People Africa http://www.plantsandpeopleafrica.com/

  • Kew Names and Taxonomic Backbone

    • The International Plant Names Index and World Checklist of Vascular Plants 2025. Published on the Internet at http://www.ipni.org and https://powo.science.kew.org/
    • © Copyright 2023 International Plant Names Index and World Checklist of Vascular Plants. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0

  • Kew Science Photographs

    • Copyright applied to individual images

  • Kew Species Profiles

    • Kew Species Profiles
    • http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0

  • Universidad Nacional de Colombia

    • ColPlantA database
    • http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0

  • Useful Plants and Fungi of Colombia

    • http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0