Karen Keutzer, age 14, of Dothan, Ala., for her question:

HOW LARGE DOES THE BANYAN TREE GROW?

The spectacular banyan tree is a native of India although it can be found in various parts of the world, including Hawaii and Florida.

A species of the fig, a single banyan tree can look as if it were an entire grove of trees. A young tree will put out many roots into the air. As these roots grow, they band toward and attach themselves to the ground, and then grow larger. The air roots then actually become additional trunks of the tree. They support branches.

A single banyan tree can grow to be from 70 to 100 feet tall. This single tree also can cover more than an acre of ground as it keeps adding new trunks. A single old banyan tree can have as many as 3,000 trunks.

Banyan trees grow red figs about the size of a cherry. The fruit is not good to eat. Sometimes the seeds sprout in the branches of other trees as they are dropped by birds. They grow air roots that finally attach to earth.