Ficus destruens F.Muell. ex C.T.White

White, C.T. (1933) Contributions from the Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University 4: 16. Type: Gadagarra, Atherton Tableland, alt. 800 m., S. F. Kajewski 1087, 8 Jun. 1929; holo: BRI.

Fig, Boonjee; Fig, Rusty; Strangler Fig; Fig; Fig, Strangler; Rusty Fig; Boonjee Fig

A strangling fig.

Younger leaf blades rusty on the underside. Petioles and twigs produce a milky exudate. Stipules pink, about 2-5 cm long, hairy on the outer surface. Leafy twigs hairy. Leaf blades about 9-18 x 2-6 cm.

Tepals glabrous. Male flowers dispersed among the fruitlets in the ripe fig. Bracts at the base of the fig, three. No lateral bracts on the outside of the fig body.

Figs with a short thick peduncle, figs +/- globular, about 15 x 12 mm. Orifice a bilabiate slit, closed within the body of the fig by inflexed, but not interlocking, apical and internal bracts.

Cotyledons +/- orbicular, about 3-4 mm long. At the tenth leaf stage: leaf blade lanceolate or ovate, apex acute, margin crenate, with about 2-7 teeth each side, +/- glabrous on the upper surface. Stipules narrowly triangular, sheathing the terminal bud, sometimes with a few reddish hairs. Taproot thickened. Seed germination time 14 to 75 days.

Endemic to Queensland, occurs in CYP, NEQ and CEQ. Altitudinal range from sea level to 1000 m. Grows in well developed upland and mountain rain forest but sometimes extends outside the rain forest and grows as an epiphyte in eucalypt forest.

Fruit eaten by several species of birds. Cooper & Cooper (1994).