**7. Age dating**

Age dating of *Ficus* trees was assessed by counting the annual rings and measuring the circumference of the branches. To avoid destruction of *Ficus* trees, the counting procedure was applied to the already cut branches in each site. Annual


**Table 1.**

*Age dating scale of F. benghalensis for the four studied localities.*

rings and circumference of the available 21 cross sections of *Ficus* trees were measured. Simple regression between annual rings as dependent variable and circumference as independent variable was carried out to have the regression equation that used to figure out the age dating of the main trunk of *F. benghalensis* trees.

To describe the age dating structure of *Ficus* trees at different sites, scale as follows: <150, 151–200, 201–250, 251–300, 301–350, and >350 years (**Table 1**).
