Ficus racemosa (syn. ) is a species of plant in the Moraceae family. Popularly known as the Cluster Fig Tree or Goolar Fig, this is native to Australasia, South-East Asia and the Indian Subcontinent. it is unusual in that its figs grow on or close to the tree trunk.
It serves as a food plant for the caterpillars of the butterfly the Two-brand Crow (Euploea sylvester) of northern Australia.[1]
Both the tree and the flower are referred to as the udumbara (Sanskrit: उडुम्बर) in Buddhism.[2] Udumbara can also refer to the blue lotus (Nila udumbara) flower. The udumbara flower appears in chapters 2 and 27 of the Lotus Sutra, an important MahayanaBuddhist text. The Japanese word udonge (優曇華) was used by Dōgen Zenji to refer to the flower of the udumbara tree in chapter 68 of the Shōbōgenzō ("Treasury of the Eye of the True Dharma"). Dōgen places the context of the udonge flower in the Flower Sermon given by Gautama Buddha on Vulture Peak.
References
^ Braby, Michael F. (2005). The Complete Field Guide to Butterflies of Australia. Collingwood, Victoria: CSIRO Publishing, p. 194. ISBN 0-643-09027-4.
^ McCullough, Helen Craig; Murasaki Shikibu (1994). Genji and Heike: Selections from The Tale of Genji and The Tale of the Heike. Stanford University Press, 94. ISBN 0804722587.
