Figueira das Lágrimas

São Paulo named this tree after the crying. The Figueira das Lágrimas, the Fig Tree of Tears, stands on the Estrada das Lágrimas in the south of the city, and this is where Paulistanos said goodbye to people leaving for the coast or for other parts of Brazil. The farewells gave it its name and most of its history. Mothers parted here from sons sent to the Paraguayan War in the 1860s. Law students from the faculty at Largo São Francisco walked out to the fig to see off friends heading home. Documents place it as an already mature tree in 1862, and botanists estimate its age at more than 250 years, which is why it is often called the oldest tree in São Paulo. A more recent story claims it for Brazilian independence, saying Dom Pedro I passed under it on the way to his famous cry by the Ipiranga in 1822. It spread around the 2022 bicentennial. It may be true; it is also exactly the kind of story a famous old tree attracts, so take it lightly. The city has taken the tree seriously. CONPRESP, São Paulo's heritage council, listed it as a protected landmark in 2016, and in 2020 the Ipiranga sub-prefecture built a small public square around it. In 2022 a sapling grown from it was planted between Avenida Dom Pedro I and the Praça do Monumento. We know it is a fig but not which species. If you can tell, let us know.