Known as the pot belly fig, it's actually a form of ficus macrocarpa retusa, also commonly called the banyan fig. It's a hardy plant that will grow just about anywhere.

Machine learning techniques are used to map gestures onto the plant so that they can be “used to issue commands,” the team writes in a paper presented this week at the Siggraph 2012 emerging ...

“I need the plant to grow to around 1.5 metres tall. ... Also very popular as green walls in my neighbourhood are Ficus microcarpa, aka Ficus retusa (sai jeen) ...