How To Identify Banyan Versus Mahua As Kalpavriksha

While both trees are revered as Kalpavriksha in different cultures, they are botanically distinct and easy to tell apart.

Banyan Tree (Ficus benghalensis)

• Key Feature (Easiest to Spot): Aerial Prop Roots. This is the defining characteristic. The Banyan sends down thick roots from its branches, which grow into the ground and become new trunks. This allows a single tree to spread over a vast area, appearing like a small forest.
• Trunk: Massive and irregular, often a complex of multiple trunks.
• Leaves: Large, oval-shaped, leathery, and glossy green.
• Fruit: A small, red, fig-like fruit (a syconium) that is not typically eaten by humans.
• Flowers: Hidden inside the fig.

Mahua Tree (Madhuca longifolia)

• Key Feature (Easiest to Spot): Fleshy, Scented Flowers. In spring, the tree produces clusters of small, fleshy, pale yellow-to-cream colored flowers. They have a very strong, sweet fragrance and fall from the tree in the early morning. These are collected and eaten.
• Trunk: A single, upright, cylindrical trunk with dark, rough, and fissured bark. It never has aerial roots.
• Leaves: Long, oblong-shaped, and grow in dense clusters at the ends of branches. New leaves often have a reddish or coppery tint.
• Fruit: A fleshy, oval, green berry (drupe) that is edible.
• Flowers: Highly visible and economically important.