A tree covering three quarters of a mile in area? Amazing!
That is what I thought when I saw my first banyan tree. The first one I saw happened to be in Fort Myers, Florida – home of one of the largest banyan trees in the world! If you have been to Hawaii or Calcutta, you may have seen one even larger!
The banyan tree is a Ficus.
The tree I saw was planted in the 1920’s by Thomas Edison and his colleagues Henry Ford and Harvey Firestone. In 1927, the three men were concerned about America’s dependence on foreign rubber sources for its industrial enterprises. They formed the Edison Botanic Research Corporation (EBRC), and the following year, built a Laboratory in Fort Myers, which became the project’s international headquarters.
The trio were looking for a fast-growing natural source of rubber that could be grown in the United States. The banyan tree was just one of more than 17,000 plant specimens that were tested during the project. (Goldenrod was eventually selected as the most suitable plant.)
All the photos I’ve shared here are from the same single tree I visited on the grounds of Edison’s Botanic Research Laboratory in Florida!
I hope you all had an amazing Mother’s Day weekend. Enjoy your week ahead!
Thanks for stopping by and remember to take pleasure in simple things, Jackie