The answer is BANYAN, six letters. The banyan is the fig that sends roots down from its branches until one tree looks like a small grove, and it is the national tree of India. If you have five squares, the answer is PIPAL, the sacred fig, a different species with several crossword spellings of its own.
A tree named after merchants
Banyan was a word for people before it was a word for a tree. It comes from the Gujarati vaniyo, a man of the trading caste, from the Sanskrit vanija, merchant, and in English the banians were Hindu traders whose business reached from inner Asia to Africa. The name was given to the tree in the 1630s because of one particular specimen at Gombroon, now Bandar Abbas on the Iranian shore of the Persian Gulf, near which banian merchants had built a pagoda.
The association made practical sense. A banyan throws broad shade and grows roots from its branches, and together those made the trees natural marketplaces. The banians were also known for strict vegetarianism and reverence for animal life, and a banian hospital, a term recorded from 1809, was a place where worn-out domestic animals were cared for. The older spelling BANIAN survives in dictionaries and has turned up in grids in the plural.
Roots that become trunks
What sets a banyan apart is its prop roots. The tree typically starts life as an epiphyte, a seed that germinates in a crack or crevice of a host tree or building, and it sends roots down to the soil. Those roots thicken into accessory trunks, which let the tree spread outward almost indefinitely. The same habit is why Ficus benghalensis is also called a strangler fig, since it can end up enveloping the tree it started on. Specimens in India rank among the largest trees in the world by canopy coverage.
Indian fig tree led to BANYAN in the Telegraph’s 2025 Cross Atlantic, and an older puzzle clued the same answer as East Indian fig tree, with the same six squares either way.
The sacred fig is a different tree
PIPAL, also spelled PEEPUL or peepal, is Ficus religiosa, the sacred fig. It is a separate species from the banyan, and both are native to the Indian subcontinent, which is why one clue can point at either. The sacred fig has religious significance in Hinduism, Buddhism, Sikhism and Jainism, and Buddhist tradition holds that Siddhartha Gautama attained enlightenment under one at Bodh Gaya. That tree gives the species its other names, BO TREE and bodhi tree. Bo comes through Sinhalese from the Sanskrit bodhi, perfect knowledge. Three Indian states, Odisha, Bihar and Haryana, have made it their state tree.
For solving, the split is simple. A clue that says sacred or mentions the Buddha wants the pipal family, and a plain Indian fig tree with six squares wants BANYAN.
Fig answers for five, six and seven squares
Check the spelling against your count, and check whether the clue is singular or plural.
| Letters | Answer | When it fits |
|---|---|---|
| 5 | PIPAL | Sacred fig, five-letter spelling |
| 5 | FICUS | When the clue asks for the genus |
| 6 | BANYAN | The default for this clue |
| 6 | BOTREE | Sacred Indian fig, Buddhist link |
| 6 | PEEPUL | Another spelling of pipal |
| 7 | BANYANS | Plural wording |
| 7 | BANIANS | Plural, older spelling |
FICUS is the genus both trees belong to, so a clue that says fig tree genus wants it rather than either species. The plural clues are easy to fumble, because BANYANS and BANIANS differ only in their fourth letter.
Without the word tree, the fig is a cactus
Drop the word tree and the clue can mean something else entirely. Opuntia ficus-indica, the prickly pear cactus, is also called the Indian fig opuntia, fig opuntia or Barbary fig, even though its wild origin was most likely central Mexico. It is the most widespread and commercially important cactus, grown for its fruit and for the vegetable nopales, and in Spanish its fruit is called tuna. So read the whole clue before writing BANYAN. If it says tree, you are in India. If it mentions a cactus, a desert or a pear, you are not.
Frequently asked questions
Is the answer BANYAN or PIPAL?
Count the squares. BANYAN has six letters and is the default for Indian fig tree. PIPAL has five and names the sacred fig, a different species. If the clue mentions something sacred or the Buddha, PIPAL, PEEPUL or BO TREE is the likelier fill.
Why is the banyan named after merchants?
The word first meant a Hindu trader, from Gujarati vaniyo. In the 1630s the name was given to the tree because of one specimen on the Persian Gulf coast near which banian merchants had built a pagoda, and the shady, sprawling trees made natural marketplaces.
What is a bo tree?
A bo tree is the sacred fig, Ficus religiosa, the species under which the Buddha is said to have attained enlightenment. Bo comes through Sinhalese from the Sanskrit bodhi. In crosswords it appears as BOTREE, six letters, usually with a sacred or Buddhist hint in the clue.
