Ficus krishnae

Krishna Fig, Krishna’s butter cup • Hindi: माखन कटोरी Makhan Katori, कृष्ण बढ़ Krishna badh • Manipuri: ক্ৰিশ্না খোঙনাঙ Krishna Khongnang;

 

 

Ficus krishnae: A big tree of Ficus krishnae in Rani Bag Mumbai. I have seen a smaller one in Pune. (Garware college.) 

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– There is a big one at Lal Bagh, Bangalore.

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– Bose and choudhury from their experience have written that it is a medium sized tree and never grows very big. Is it true?

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– I have seen a tall tree of this but it was planted. Btw just out of curiosity, has anyone seen the leaves being used for some traditional purpose?

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– The Ficus Krishnae in Lalbagh Bangalore is a very big tree. 

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– There is a tree of The Ficus Krishnae in Dr.Hari Singh Gour University Sagar (M.P.) and also behind the circuit house in Seoni (M.P.).

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– it is also in bokaro park in jharkhand

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– There is one more tree of Ficus krishnae in Mumbai in The BPT garden (also known as Sagar Upavan) at Colaba.  

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– I hope Callicarpa bodinieri   

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As with most things in India, there is a mythological story of Krishna related to the leaves of this tree. The story goes that Lord Krishna was very fond of butter and would even steal it. Once when he was caught by his mother, Yashoda, he tried to hide the butter by rolling it up in a leaf of this tree. Since then, the leaves of these trees have retained this shape.

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Ficus with beautiful leaves……………….

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Trees of Lalbagh, Bangalore – Ficus benghalensis var. krishnae – Krishna Fig Tree:  

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I wonder why this variety has been treated as the synonym to the typical variety and the accepted name for this taxon is F. benghalensis L.?
http://www.theplantlist.org/tpl/record/kew-2809653
Couldn’t find the reference too. Hope somebody will help.

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Yes another tree often seen grown in all the major botanical gardens of India.
It is there in Rani Bag Mumbai too.

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Here is a very interesting paper from RINKEY TIWARI, JANA V. SUDHAKAR, LAL B. CHAUDHARY, GARIMELLA V. S. MURTHY & ANJALA DURGAPAL:

Here is the abstract:

Abstract– Ficus krishnae considered as native to India is very unique among all species in the genus as it has peculiar leaves generally with cone-shaped structure at base and leaflet like appendages on the petiole. These both features are tremendously variable within the species. The taxonomic status of F. krishnae is still uncertain as sometimes it is treated as subspecies or conspecific to its closest relative F. benghalensis. Many mythological stories regarding the formation of cup in the leaves are also associated in India and hence the plants of the species are considered sacred and worshiped. The merger of F. krishnae with F. benghalensis makes the latter quite heterogeneous and at the same time it may not be acceptable in the society at large as with the former the religious faith of the people is attached. Earlier it was believed that F. krishnae differs from F. benghalensis only in cup-shaped leaves. But critical examination of large number of specimens gathered from different places and available information reveal that F. krishnae distinctly differs from F. benghalensis not only in cup formation in leaves, rather also in height of the plants, aerial roots, stipules, petiole and its leafy appendages and ostiolar bracts of the receptacle, in addition to differences in chromosome, DNA contents, stomatal and parenchymatous cells and nodal anatomy. Based on morphological, anatomical and cytological evidences F. krishnae is again reinstated here as a correct species. The correct citation of the species has been provided and discussion has been made on the variation pattern of the leaves. The detail description of the species along with line drawing illustrations and colour photographs has been added.

Kudos to the authors for this remarkable work.

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I am a new member of this group and have very recently got interested in tree spotting.

I have created a small writeup on a tree which caught my interest recently. 

The blog is mainly a way for me to save my brain dump somewhere of all the reading that I do when I come across some thing interesting, for future.

Kindly, let me know what you think.