Ficus drupacea Thunb.

Moraceae

Thunberg, C.P. (1786) Dissertatione Botanica. Ficus : 6, 11. Type: Southern Asia, C. Thunberg.

Fig, Hairy; Fig, Drupe; Fig; Fig, Red; Hairy Fig; Red Fig; Drupe Fig

A strangling fig. Lenticels tend to be in horizontal lines. A hard brown horny layer normally visible in the outer blaze. Exudate rapid and copious.

Stipules about 0.8-4.5 cm long, densely clothed in long rusty prostrate silky hairs when young. Petioles and twigs produce a milky exudate. Leaf blades about 10-20 x 4-8 cm. Both surfaces of young leaf blades densely clothed in rusty hairs. Oil dots sometimes visible on the underside of the leaf blade with the aid of a lens.

Tepals glabrous. Male flowers scattered at random 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 sessile, ellipsoid or oblong, about 15-25 x 15-20 mm. Orifice +/- closed by interlocking apical and internal bracts.

Cotyledons oblong to orbicular, about 3-4 mm long. First pair of leaves +/- opposite. At the tenth leaf stage: leaf blade elliptic to ovate, apex acute, base obtuse, upper surface hairy, mainly on the midrib and main lateral veins; oil dots numerous, visible with a lens; petiole densely hairy; stipules triangular, sheathing the terminal bud, hairy. Taproot thickened, carrot-like (Daucus carota). Seed germination time 10 to 46 days.

Occurs in CYP and NEQ. Altitudinal range from sea level to 450 m. Grows in well developed lowland rain forest on a variety of sites. Also occurs in SE Asia, Malesia, the Solomon Islands and other Pacific islands.

Fruits eaten by Fruit Pigeons. Cooper & Cooper (1994).

Ficus drupacea Thunb. var. drupacea, The Gardens' Bulletin Singapore 17: 380(1960). Ficus drupacea var. glabrata Corner, The Gardens' Bulletin Singapore 17: 380(1960), Type: Timor Laut (Moluccas), Forbes 3371; BM. Ficus pilosa Reinw. ex Blume, Bijdragen tot de Flora van Nederlandsch Indie No. 3 : 443(1825), Type: in sylvis altioribus montis Salak (Java). Urostigma pilosum (Blume) Miq., Systematisches Verzeichniss der im indischen Archipel : 90(1854).