Ficus asperrima Roxb, Ficus punctifera Warb, Ficus scabra Willd, Ficus serrata Forssk, Ficus silicea Sim. Its vernacular names in India are: Gargatti Aalada Mara, ಅಡವಿ ಅತ್ತಿ Adavi Atti, ಗರಗತ್ತಿ Garagatti in Kannada; Parakam or Therakam in Malayalam; Karvat करवत in Marathi; करपत्र Karapatra in Sanskrit; Irambarattam or Maramthinni Atthi in Tamil; Karaka Boddu కరక బొద్దు or Karasana or Siri Bodda in Telugu. It is also called Brahma's Banyan.
Sandpaper tree Did you know that Sandpaper tree's leaves with silica content are widely used as a source of sandpaper to smooth wood and calabashes, and to impart the last fine-grade polish to ivory apart from use in folk medicine? The Sandpaper tree known by the scientific names Ficus exasperate and Ficus asperifolia is widely known as forest sandpaper fig, white fig, or sandpaper leaf or as Siamese rough bush. It is a deciduous and dipciuos species of plant, densely branched, in the Mulberry family Moraceae, native to Southern India (moslty on the Western Ghats and Eastern Ghats); Sri Lanka; Southeast Asia; tropical Africa from Senegal to Ethiopia to Angola; and in the Arabian countries such as Yemen. The tree's highly textured leaf surface gives it the name as the "sandpaper tree". Sandpaper tree is a small to medium sized tree in Banyan group of figs. growing to 18 to 20 m metres. It is a middle-sized tree, semi ever green; bark pale...
