Ficus religiosa L.
| Kannada Name : | Arali mara |
| Common Name : | Sacred fig |
| Family Name : | Moraceae |
| Scientific Name : | Ficus religiosa |
| Species Type : | Indigenous |
| Phenology : | Deciduous |
| Conservation Status : | Least concern |
| Flowering Period : | November - December |
| Fruiting Period : | April - May |
| Origin : | Indian subcontinent |
Uses
Ficus religiosa is used in traditional medicine for about fifty types of disorders including asthma, diabetes, diarrhea, epilepsy, gastric problems, inflammatory disorders, infectious and sexual disorders.
Description
Deciduous or semievergreen trees, 15-25 m tall, epiphytic when young. Bark gray, smooth, exudation milky. Branchlets grayish brown, sparsely pubescent when young. Leaves simple, alternate, leaf blade triangular-ovate, coriaceous, abaxially green, adaxially dark green and shiny, base broadly cuneate to cordate, apex acuminate-caudate, margin entire or undulate. Inflorescence a syconium. Figs axillary on leafy branchlets, paired or solitary, with no internal bristles, red when mature, globose to depressed globose, smooth. Flowers unisexual; male flowers, ostiolar, sessile in one ring; female flowers sessile, brownish, glabrous; gall flowers similar to female. Achenes smooth.
