Northern limit of Banyan/Ficus in Florida

[bubba]

I conferenced with a Ranger at Washington Oaks State Park, who indicated that the Banyan tree at the park,which proclaimed itself the furthest Northern Banyan in the State of Florida was no longer there. This is located close to Marineland between St.Augustine and Ormond Beach. Given it's demise, can anyone advise to their knowledge the furthest Northern Ficus/Banyan in the State of Florida?

[spockvr6]

The furthest north where I know them (i.e. true Banyans, F. benghalensis) to be widespread (i.e. many of them in close proximity) is St. Petersburg.  But, I believe there are a few scattered here and there at more northerly locations but they would likely be "odd ball" specimens.

[SubTropicRay]

There are a handful of big ones in south Tampa.  All are large enough to predate the 1980's freezes.

[richtrav]

Ray

Are there any that didn't freeze all the way to the ground in Tampa back in the '80s?

Richard

[spockvr6]

(richtrav @ Jul. 02 2007,13:11)

QUOTE

Ray

Are there any that didn't freeze all the way to the ground in Tampa back in the '80s?

Richard

Richard-

I cant answer that question for Tampa (but assume the answer is that there are some that were not frozen to the ground), but in St. Pete there are many of them which have made it decades.  Ive heard that some were planted in the early 1900's, and perhaps earlier.  The same goes for some Mangos down there.  I cannot even believe the size of some of them.  I wouldnt even begin to understand how one could harvest the fruit.

Up here in the Tarpon Springs area, althouhh there are some large Ficus elastica (maybe 30-40 ft or so),  and good sized Mangos, etc there are no monster true Banyans that I have ever been able to locate.

[Dave-Vero]

Vero Beach has a number of very large Ficus (excluding at least one that tipped over in one of the 2004 hurricanes, making an impressive mess).  The big trees are clearly pre-1989.

[richtrav]

Oh I know there are some in St Pete that only suffered branch loss back in the '80s - I remember driving from Sarasota to Tampa back in the early '90s and seeing massive banyans in St Pete which had been killed back to about 5-9" wood but still had their main trunks intact. Then again, there were a number of large royals in the general vicinity which had pulled through too. I don't know of any neighborhood in Tampa that warm.

[Eric in Orlando]

There is the huge banyan at Cypress Gardens in Winter Haven. I think it is the 2nd largest in FL after the one at the Edison Estate in Ft. Myers. The CG banyan is heated on cold nights. It was planted back in the 1930s.There are also older ones on Merritt Island that did not freeze to the ground in the 1980s. Around orlando, I have only knew of 3 banyans before the 1980s freezes. There was a big one in downtown across from the Sentinel building where the 7-11 is now. I first saw it in the mid 80s and it was dead, either the 12/83 or 1977 freeze killed it. There is one down the street from my mom's house. It was a big tree and froze to the ground in the 80's. It is back 30-40 ft tall and wide spreading. There was also one just south of downtown. It froze to the ground in 12/89 (and probably in 83 and 85). I came across it in summer 1993 and it was back about 20ft tall. I took cuttings and one is in my mom's yard and one here at Leu Gardens. Ours is about 30ft tall and developing a buttress and prop roots. There is also a good sized banyan at Disney's Animal Kingdom. It was dug and brought up from SoFL back in the mid 90s.

[SubTropicRay]

Hi Richard,

The peninsula portion of Tampa is as warm as many parts of St. Pete.  Perhaps not as warm as the bayfront/gulfront portions of St. Pete but not as cold as mainland Tampa either.  Judging by the size of the specimens I mentioned, the plants suffered significant damage but did not burn back to the ground. The largest specimen I ever saw in Tampa was at the corner of Gandy and Bayshore and was removed for a condo back in the late 1990's. This area again, benefits from an even better microclimate than the rest of the 3 mile wide peninsula.

Take a look at Bill's "Make your own zone map" string under the weather/climate sub-heading.  The final map version he made is as good a climate map for the area as I've seen.

Ray

[Jason in Orlando]

There's a large Ficus elastica (I believe) in the residential section of downtown St. Cloud, several blocks away from East Lake Toho.  Probably 30-40 feet tall and almost as wide.  Couldn't tell you how long it's been there.

Jason

[philinsydney]

Anyone know about F. macrophylla or F. rubiginosa in Florida? These are so familiar in Sydney that I'm interested to know.

[Eric in Orlando]

There's big F. macrophylla and F. rubiginosa in botanic gardens in SoFL. In particular, huge specimens of F. macrophylla at Selby Gds. in Sarasota and the Edison Estate in Ft. Myers. There is a large F. macrophylla at the Polynesian Resort at Disney and it has been there since it opened in the 1970s. I grew a cutting off this about 12 years ago and it is planted here at Leu Gardens. It has grown fast and is almost 30ft now. I just recently planted a F. rubiginosa. Both of these are probably the hardiest "banyan-type" Ficus.

[Walt]

If Ficus benghalensis can come back from the roots after being frozen (some species don't, like Ficus alii), then I think one could find them as far north as Jacksonville. Of course, a banyan at that location would never grow past the shrub stage, as it would keep getting frozen back.

As far as full sized banyans, I've seen the one at Cypress gardens. I also saw a good sized one in Haines City, just south of I-4 in Polk County.

In my area I've found many large banyan trees, all growing close to large lakes.

Some folks I know who live about 1.5 miles from me on lakeside property have five large Ficus benghalensis trees, among other species, that were planted in the 1950s and all went through the freezes since then. The below photo is one of these banyans:

[Walt]

Here's another banyan tree (one of the five I referred to) and there's an old tractor (right side of photo) that is now captured within the new subsidiary root trunks.

[Walt]

Another baynan Ficus species is F. elastica. This one at Sebring, Florida, is the largest one I've found so far in our zone 9b climate. This tree, however is about 200 feet on the north side of a large lake, so it's climate is probably zone 10a/b, depending on winters.

[ruskinPalms]

This is a pic I took last year of a banyaning ficus of some sort that is growing in an abandoned field here in Ruskin. Never have been too sure what type it is but I think it was ID'd in an older thread as F. benghalensis. What about F. aurea? How much cold can it take? I think it banyans too.

[SubTropicRay]

Nice specimens.  Bill, that one in Ruskin is big enough to predate 1989.

[JeffreyApolloBeach]

Bill,

Can you see this tree from US41?  When I drive on US41, just north of Shell Point you can see a similar tree on a lot on the west side of US41.

[Walt]

I know the late Bob Riffle liked the ficus genus. I happen to like the ficus genus myself. Another ficus species I like is Ficus microcarpa. It's slightly more cold hardy (maybe 2-3 degrees at most) than Ficus benghalensis and F. elastica, at least based on my observations.

The Ficus microcarpa below is growing in historic downtown Sebring, Florida, in the front yard of a lake front home. One day I plan on talking to the owner of this tree to get some history on it (the trees' age and if it was ever seriously damaged by past freezes). This tree has never been frost damaged since I first saw it ten years ago.

[ruskinPalms]

(JeffreyApolloBeach @ Jul. 09 2007,10:26)

QUOTE

Bill,

Can you see this tree from US41?  When I drive on US41, just north of Shell Point you can see a similar tree on a lot on the west side of US41.

Yep, that's the one Jeffrey. It seems to be pretty nice Banyan in an area that does not have any particular microclimate effect other than tampa bay being couple miles more or less to the north and northwest of it. That empty field probably gets rather frosty in winter so that particular Banyan might be a good one to get a cutting from.