Ashathwa

Ashathwa Ficus religiosa Linn (Moraceae). A huge tree, up to 25 m. high, branches spreading; sometimes epiphytic (not parasite), without hanging aerial roots, deciduous. Leaves Smooth, leathery Cordate, tip long, petiale 12 cm.; blade 10-20 cm. long, 5-10 cm. wide, young leaf cooper colomed. Long late-like leaf-lips by passing breaze hit the adjacent baf-blades and create a fettering sound. Recepacles subglobose or ovate-globase, 1 cm wide, green when young, deep puskle when ripe, usually paired. Small male and female flowes are born inside to receptacle. The species is indigenous in Sul-Himalayan tracts extending to Central in India, Asam and Bangladesh, Planted everywhere. Fruits ripen during summer months, loved by birds and suds germinate in the holes of other trees and in the creaks of the walls. Wood is inferior. Different parts have medicinal use. This is Sacred to Hindus Buddisto. Gautam meditated under an Ashathwa tree in Budh-gaya and became Budha. It is a popular Shade tree. [Dwijen Sarma]