Ficus pleurocarpa F.Muell.

Moraceae

Mueller, F.J.H. von (1874) Fragmenta Phytographiae Australiae 8: 246. Type: Ad flumen Johnstoni; W. Hill.

Banana Fig; Ribbed Fig; Karpe Fig; Karpe; Gabi Fig; Fig, Ribbed; Fig, Karpe; Fig, Gabi; Fig, Banana; Fig; Figwood

A strangling fig.

Leaf blade rather large, about 16-28 x 7-11 cm. Stipules about 10-30 cm long and hairy towards the base. Leaf bearing twigs rather stout, about 10 mm diam., hairy, at least in the younger stages. Midrib hairy on the underside of the younger leaf blades.

Tepals glabrous. Male flowers dispersed among the fruitlets of the ripe fig. Anthers reniform. Bracts at the base of the fig, three. Lateral bracts absent on the outside of the fig body.

Figs cylindric, about 35-65 x 13-25 mm, apex not conspicuously beaked. Orifice ending as a triradiate or bilabiate slit and closed within the body of the fig by inflexed, but not interlocking, internal bracts.

Cotyledons orbicular, about 3-6 mm diam. First pair of leaves with toothed margins. At the tenth leaf stage: leaf blade lanceolate or ovate, apex acute to acuminate, base obtuse to cordate, margins, if toothed, crenate; oil dots not visible, glabrous; petioles and stem glabrous; stipules sheathing the terminal bud, about 5-15 mm long. Taproot somewhat thickened. Seed germination time 13 to 56 days.

Endemic to NEQ, restricted to the area between Cape Tribulation and Tully. Altitudinal range from near sea level to 1000 m. Grows in well developed rain forest on a variety of sites.

Ripe figs are eaten by several species of birds as well as Green Possums and Musky Rat-kangaroos. Cooper & Cooper (1994).

Ficus cylindrica Warb., Repertorium Novarum Specierum Regni Vegetabilis 1 1: 72(1905), Type: Queensland: Ober-Barron, leg. Diels no. 8382, 22. Mai 1902.