A full grown tree is one of the largest trees in India
You see them everyday, but hardly think about them. They are a house to so many. Many get food from them. Their large umbrellas give shade and peace to many others. In some cases their parts are also used for making medicines.
Do you know what these are?
These are trees that grow around you.
a) Do you spend time looking at them?
b) Do you ever observe how they sometimes changes clothes?
c) How they swing and dance with the breeze? And the animals and birds that live on and around them.
Open your palms. Let your two thumbs touch each other, and let your two first fingers touch each other.
1) What kind of shape is it?
2) Can you think of a similar shape?
3) What kind of shape is it?
Let me give you a clue. It is the shape of leaf. Guess the mane of the tree to which this leaf belongs.
Could you guess, yes it is Peepal.
Peepal is one of the best known trees in India. It is perhaps the largest of our Indian fig trees. It grows everywhere in cities as cities as well as in towns and is held in high esteem. It has given cool shades to many travelers from centuries. Even now a shady place below an old Peepal is a good place in a village for holding a meeting, a panchyats or even a small school. Hindus and Buddhists worship this tree. Gautama Buddha sat in meditation under this tree.
Where does it grow?
It may grow any where. In the crack of a wall, this may get further split open by the growing roots. When young it may also grow on other trees. The tree on which it grows gets gradually killed by its rope like roots. It is very easy to grow by seeds or cuttings. Natural regeneration takes place by seeds scattered by birds.
How does it look?
A full grown tree is one of the largest trees in India. But it does not have the aerial roots of banyan trees.
The leaves and young branches are smooth and more or less shining. The leaves are broadly oval in shape, suddenly narrowed at the end into a narrow tail. These leaves hang down from the branches and make rustling sound.
They provide music to the tired farmers or travelers who sit down under the tree for taking rest. Tired farmers and travelers are lulled to sleep under its cool shade with the music of its leaves.
Age of the Peepal
Peepal has a very long life compared to other trees. King Ashoka’s son and daughter took Buddha’s message to Ceylone (Sri Lanka) country in 288 BC they took with them a branch of Maha Bodhi tree under which Gautama Buddha had got his enlightenment. The tree Ceylone became on e of the oldest trees in the world being more than 2000 years old. It is since a good care of the tree was taken it lasted for several centuries.
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