A banyan, also spelled `banian`, is a fig that begins its life as an epiphyte, i.e. a plant that grows on another plant, when its seed germinates in a crack or crevice of a host tree or edifice. `Banyan` often specifically denominates Ficus benghalensis the `Indian banyan`, which is the national tree of the Republic of India, though the name has also been generalized to denominate all figs that share a common life cycle and used systematically in taxonomy to denominate the subgenus Urostigma. Like other fig species, banyans bear their fruit in the form of a structure called a `syconium`. The syconium of Ficus species supply shelter and food for fig wasps and the trees depend on the fig wasps for pollination. Frugivore birds disperse the seeds of banyans. The seeds are small, and because most banyans grow in woodlands, a seedling that germinates on the ground is unlikely to survive. However, many seeds fall on the branches and stems of other trees or on human edifices, and when they germinate they grow roots down toward the ground and consequently may envelop part of the host tree or edifice. For this reason banyans bear the colloquial name `strangler fig`. A number of tropical banyan species that compete for sunlight, especially of the genus Ficus, exhibit this strangling habit
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