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24-534: People's Park is located at 1 East Renmin Road in central Nanning, a ten-minute walk from Chaoyang Square. Its main features are the 70,000-square-metre (17-acre) White Dragon Lake (白龙湖), with a small island connected to the shore by two bridges, and Wangxian Hill (望仙坡), the highest point in downtown Nanning. On top of the hill is the Zhenning Fort (镇宁炮台), reached by 141 ten-meter-wide (33 ft) stone steps. In

48-453: A common life cycle and used systematically in taxonomy to denominate the subgenus Urostigma . Like other fig species, banyans bear their fruit in the form of a structure called a " syconium ". The syconium of Ficus species supply shelter and food for fig wasps and the trees depend on the fig wasps for pollination. Frugivore birds disperse the seeds of banyans. The seeds are small, and because most banyans grow in woodlands ,

72-433: A purpose as on outdoor plants, as there is no rain indoors and indoor humidity is often low due to A/C and heating systems. However, studies have shown that increasing indoor humidity can result in houseplant aerial roots growing longer in length, resulting in lower levels of transpiration and more efficient intake of nitrogen than aroid houseplants grown in standard indoor humidity. Aerial roots on houseplant cuttings increase

96-501: A seedling that germinates on the ground is unlikely to survive. However, many seeds fall on the branches and stems of other trees or on human edifices, and when they germinate they grow roots down toward the ground and consequently may envelop part of the host tree or edifice. This is colloquially known as a " strangler " habit, which banyans share with a number of other tropical Ficus species, as well as some other unrelated genera such as Clusia and Metrosideros . The leaves of

120-661: A subject specimen in penjing and bonsai . The oldest living bonsai in Taiwan is a 240-year-old banyan tree housed in Tainan . Banyan trees figure prominently in several Asian and Pacific religions and myths, including: Aerial root Aerial roots are roots growing above the ground. They are often adventitious , i.e. formed from nonroot tissue. They are found in diverse plant species, including epiphytes such as orchids ( Orchidaceae ), tropical coastal swamp trees such as mangroves , banyan figs ( Ficus subg. Urostigma ),

144-530: A wide area. In some species, the prop roots develop over a considerable area that resembles a grove of trees, with every trunk connected directly or indirectly to the primary trunk. The topology of this massive root system inspired the name of the hierarchical computer network operating system " Banyan VINES ". In a banyan that envelops its host tree, the mesh of roots growing around the latter eventually applies considerable pressure to and commonly kills it. Such an enveloped, dead tree eventually decomposes, so that

168-450: Is covered with lenticel (small pores) which take up air into spongy tissue, which in turn uses osmotic pathways to spread oxygen throughout the plant as needed. Pneumatophores differentiate the black mangrove and grey mangrove from other mangrove species. Fishers in some areas of Southeast Asia make corks for fishing nets by shaping the pneumatophores of mangrove apples ( Sonneratia caseolaris ) into small floats. Members of

192-644: The Guangxi warlord Lu Rongting demolished the temple and built the Zhenning Fort on the site, with a 120mm rail-mounted cannon manufactured by the German Krupp Company in 1890. The fort and the cannon are now open to visitors. Banyan See Ficus § Subgenus Urostigma . A banyan , also spelled banian ( / ˈ b æ n j ən / BAN -yən ), is a fig that develops accessory trunks from adjacent prop roots , allowing

216-574: The Northern Song general who suppressed the rebellion of Nong Zhigao in Guangxi, stationed his troops nearby. He once saw a flock of white sheep beside the lake, which he thought resembled a dragon, and named the lake White Dragon Lake. The Temple of Six Lords (六公祠) once stood on top of Wangxian Hill in the park. The temple was dedicated to six significant people in the history of Nanning, namely Di Qing, Sun Mian ( 孫沔 ), Yu Jing ( 余靖 ), Su Jian ( 苏缄 ), Wang Yangming , and Mang Yitu ( 莽依圖 ). In 1917,

240-405: The banyan becomes a "columnar tree" with a hollow, central core. In jungles, such hollows are very desirable shelters to many animals. From research, it is known that the longevity of banyan tree is due to multiple signs of adaptive (MSA) evolution of genes. The name was originally given to F. benghalensis and comes from India, where early European travelers observed that the shade of the tree

264-689: The banyan tree are large, leathery, glossy, green, and elliptical. Like most figs, the leaf bud is covered by two large scales. As the leaf develops the scales abscise. Young leaves have an attractive reddish tinge. Older banyan trees are characterized by aerial prop roots that mature into thick, woody trunks, which can become indistinguishable from the primary trunk with age. These aerial roots can become very numerous. The Great Banyan of Kolkata, which has been tracked carefully for many years, currently has 2,880 supplementary trunks. Such prop roots can be sixty feet (eighteen meters) in height. Old trees can spread laterally by using these prop roots to grow over

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288-524: The geographical area ) variety of maize , aerial roots produce a sweet mucus that supports nitrogen fixing bacteria , which supply 30–80 percent of the plant's nitrogen needs. Many plants that are commonly grown indoors can develop aerial roots, such as Monstera deliciosa , Pothos ( Epipremnum aureum ), Rubber Tree ( Ficus elastica ), Fiddle Leaf Fig ( Ficus lyrata ), Thaumatophyllum bipinnatifidum , many Philodendron and succulents such as Echeveria . Aerial roots on houseplants do not serve as much of

312-411: The ground) or positively gravitropic (grows down toward the ground). Banyan trees are an example of a strangler fig that begins life as an epiphyte in the crown of another tree. Their roots grow down and around the stem of the host, their growth accelerating once the ground has been reached. Over time, the roots coalesce to form a pseudotrunk, which may give the appearance that it is strangling

336-504: The host. Another strangler that begins life as an epiphyte is the Moreton Bay fig ( Ficus macrophylla ) of tropical and subtropical eastern Australia, which has powerfully descending aerial roots. In the subtropical to warm-temperate rainforests of northern New Zealand, Metrosideros robusta , the rata tree, sends aerial roots down several sides of the trunk of the host. From these descending roots, horizontal roots grow out to girdle

360-693: The middle of the park is the Shady Botanical Garden, featuring rare herbs, local flowers, and a 1,000-year-old banyan tree. In the northeast corner is a 25-metre-tall (82 ft) Monument to Revolutionary Martyrs, surrounded by pine and cypress trees. The park is rated an AAA tourist attraction by the China National Tourism Administration . According to the Southern Song dynasty geographical text Yudi Jisheng ( 輿地紀勝 ), Di Qing (1008–1057),

384-479: The moisture from fog or humid air. Some surprising results in studies on aerial roots of orchids show that the velamen (the white spongy envelope of the aerial roots), are actually totally waterproof, preventing water loss but not allowing any water in. Once reaching and touching a surface, the velamen is not produced in the contact area, allowing the root to absorb water like terrestrial roots. Many other epiphytes - non-parasitic or semi-parasitic plants living on

408-506: The parent plant and develop as separate clones of the parent. Aerial roots may receive water and nutrient intake from the air. There are many types of aerial roots; some, such as mangrove, are used for aeration and not for water absorption. In other cases, they are used mainly for structure, and in order to reach the surface. Many plants rely on the leaf system for gathering the water into pockets, or onto scales. These roots function as terrestrial roots do. Most aerial roots directly absorb

432-429: The subfamily Taxodioideae produce woody above ground structures, known as cypress knees , that project upward from their roots. These structures were initially thought to function as pneumatophores, but recent experiments have failed to find evidence for this hypothesis. These roots are found in parasitic plants , where aerial roots become cemented to the host plant via a sticky attachment disc before intruding into

456-486: The surface of other plants - have developed cups and scales that gather rainwater or dew. The aerial roots in this case work as regular surface roots. There are also several types of roots, creating a cushion where a high humidity is retained. Some of the aerial roots, especially in the genus Tillandsia , have a physiology that collects water from humidity, and absorbs it directly. In the Sierra Mixe (named after

480-446: The tissues of the host. Mistletoe is an example of this. Adventitious roots usually develop from plantlet nodes formed via horizontal, above ground stems, termed stolons , e.g., strawberry runners, and spider plant . Some leaves develop adventitious buds, which then form adventitious roots, e.g. piggyback plant ( Tolmiea menziesii ) and mother-of-thousands ( Kalanchoe daigremontiana ). The adventitious plantlets then drop off

504-462: The tree to spread outwards indefinitely. This distinguishes banyans from other trees with a strangler habit that begin life as an epiphyte , i.e. a plant that grows on another plant, when its seed germinates in a crack or crevice of a host tree or edifice. "Banyan" often specifically denotes Ficus benghalensis (the "Indian banyan"), which is the national tree of India, though the name has also been generalized to denominate all figs that share

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528-479: The trunk and fuse with the descending roots. In some cases, the "strangler" outlives the host tree, leaving as its only trace a hollow core in the massive pseudotrunk of the rata. These specialized aerial roots enable plants to breathe air in habitats that have waterlogged soil. The roots may grow down from the stem, or up from typical roots. Some botanists classify these as aerating roots rather than aerial roots, if they come up from soil. The surface of these roots

552-478: The warm-temperate rainforest rata ( Metrosideros robusta ), and pohutukawa trees of New Zealand ( Metrosideros excelsa ). Vines such as common ivy ( Hedera helix ) and poison ivy ( Toxicodendron radicans ) also have aerial roots. This plant organ that is found in so many diverse plant-families has different specializations that suit the plant-habitat. In general growth-form, they can be technically classed as negatively gravitropic (grows up and away from

576-460: Was frequented by Banyans (a corruption of Baniyas, a community of Indian traders). The original banyan, F. benghalensis , can grow into a giant tree covering several hectares. Over time, the name became generalized to all strangler figs of the Urostigma subgenus. The many banyan species also include: Due to the complex structure of the roots and extensive branching, the banyan is used as

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