Banyan Tree - An Ping Tree House

Banyan Tree is the late comer in An Ping Tree House, but now plays a major part here.  In the south of Taiwan, Banyan is the common plant, growing big and wide, because of no economical value itself.  People here take no bother to violate its existence.  Simply speaking, the only benefit to have Banyan is to rest under its shadow in the extremist hot summer day.

In March/April to visit Tree House, tourists got the chance to see its flower, not blossoming, but figs on the trunk, so there are a lot of lumps on the trunk after the figs dropped. The specialty of Banyan is its aerial roots, like the beard of the human beings growing from the trunk to help absorbing the moisture in the air and whatever the tree want around its living surrounding.  Only until the aerial root touches the ground, it will become a solid root, like the left picture shown.  To avoid its growing wide, the gardener has to cut the banyan beard all the time.

The roots of Banyan can leak a special chemical acid, which can erode the concrete and damage the housing structure.  This is the reason why the salty company warehouse was rooting by the banyan tree on the roof and the wall, almost covering the whole warehouse top.  To see the nature power of Banyan tree, the walking rail here was building on the top of the house to give a complete picture of the so-called tree house.