Ficus racemosa

Ficus racemosa
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Plantae
Division:	Magnoliophyta
Class:	Magnoliopsida
Order:	Rosales
Family:	Moraceae
Genus:	Ficus
Species:	F. racemosa
Binomial name
Ficus racemosa

Ficus racemosa (syn. Ficus glomerata Roxb.) is a species of plant in the Moraceae family. Popularly known as the Cluster Fig Tree, this deciduous tree is native to South Asia.

In Buddhism

Both the tree and the flower are referred to as the udumbara (Sanskrit: उडुम्बर)(Telugu:మేడిపండు) in Buddhism. 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 Mahayana Buddhist 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.

Udonge is also used to refer to the eggs of the lacewing insect. The eggs are laid in a pattern similar to a flower, and its shape is used for divination in Asian fortune telling.

The udumbara flower is enclosed within a fig-like fruit structure. Because the flower was difficult to see, a legend developed to explain the absence of the visual flower: In Buddhist mythology, the flower was said to bloom only once every 3,000 years. The symbolic nature of the udumbara is used in the 3rd century Lotus Sutra to compare the unique occurrence of its bloom with the uncommon appearance of the Buddha and its doctrine:

As the Buddhas of the three periods of time
In such a manner spoke the Dharma,
So do I likewise now expound
The undiscriminated Dharma.
All Buddhas come into the world
But rarely, and are hard to meet;
And when they appear in the world,
It’s hard for them to speak the Dharma.
Throughtout countless ages, too,
It’s difficult to hear this Dharma.
And those who can hear this Dharma--
Such people too, are rare,
Like the udumbara flower,
In which all take delight,
Which the gods and humans prize,
For it blooms but once in a long, long time.
So one who hears this Dharma, gives joyful praise,
With even just a single word,
Has thereby made offerings,
To all the Buddhas of the three periods of time.
Such people are extremely rare.
Rarer than the udumbara flower.
All of you should have no doubts,
For I am the Dharma King;
I declare to the assembly:
I use only the path of One Vehicle,
To teach and transform Bodhisattvas.
There are no Sound Hearer Disciples.
Shariputra, all of you,
the Sound Hearers and Bodhisattvas,
Should know that this wondrous Dharma

Is the secret essence of all Buddhas.

Thich Nhat Hanh places the flower in the context of enlightenment:

To see a fully awakened person, a Buddha, is so rare that it is like seeing an udumbara flower. In the Tu Hieu Monastery in Hue, there is a scroll which says: "The udumbara flower, although fallen from the stem, is still fragrant." Just as the fragrance of the udumbara flower cannot be destroyed, our capacity for enlightenment is always present. The Buddha taught that everyone is a Buddha, everyone is an udumbara flower.