Wild banyan tree

Ficus brevifolia Nuttall; F. laevigata Vahl; F. laevigata var. brevifolia (Nuttall) D'Arcy; F. populifolia Desfontaines; F. populnea Willdenow subvar. floridana E. Warburg; F. populnea var. brevifolia (Nuttall) E. Warburg

Shrubs or trees , evergreen, to 15 m. Roots adventitious, aerial, hanging. Bark brownish, smooth. Branchlets grayish, glabrous or sparingly pubescent. Leaves: stipules 0.5-2 cm, glabrous; petiole (0.7-)1.5-6 cm. Leaf blade ovate to elliptic or obovate, 3-14 × 1.5-8 cm, nearly leathery, base usually cordate or rounded to obtuse, margins entire, apex obtuse to acute or acuminate; surfaces abaxially and adaxially glabrous; basal veins 1(-2) pairs; lateral veins fewer than 10, if more than 10, not uniformly spaced. Syconia solitary or paired, pedunculate, yellow or red, spotted, globose to globose-ovoid, 8-18 mm diam., glabrous; peduncles to ca. 15 mm; subtending bracts 2, shortly connate, deltate or broadly rounded, 2-3 mm wide, glabrous or puberulent; ostiole subtended by 3 bracts, bracts ovate, ca. 1 × 2-3 mm, slightly umbonate.

Flowering spring-summer. Tropical hammocks; 0-10 m; Fla.; Mexico; West Indies; Central America; South America.

Ficus citrifolia is the large and graceful banyan tree that is planted for shade around verandas.