Ficus variegata Blume

Moraceae

Blume, C.L. von (1825) Bijdragen tot de Flora van Nederlandsch Indie : 459. Type: in sylvis montium Salak, Parang, etc.

Common Red Stem Fig; Fig; Fig, Variegated; Fig, Green Fruited; Variegated Fig; Green Fruited Fig; Fig, Common Red Stem

Not a strangling fig. Exudate rapid and copious. Lenticels very small.

Leaf blades rather large, about 14-21 x 9-13 cm. Petioles and twigs produce a watery milky exudate. Stipules smooth, about 1-1.5 cm long.

Male flowers produced around the ostiole. In the female flower, the stigma turbinate, +/- tuberculate. Bracts at the base of the fig, three, caducous. Lateral bracts not present on the outside of the fig body.

Figs pedunculate (peduncle slender, about 30-50 mm long) globular, depressed globular or depressed pyriform, about 30 x 30 mm. Orifice closed by interlocking apical bracts and inflexed internal bracts.

Cotyledons orbicular, about 2 mm diam. At the tenth leaf stage: leaf blade ovate, apex acuminate, base obtuse to cordate, margin bluntly serrate, upper surface glabrous or with a few pale hairs along the midrib; oil dots visible with a lens; petiole hairy; stipules elongate-triangular, sheathing the terminal bud. Seed germination time 14 days.

Occurs in CYP and NEQ. Altitudinal range from sea level to 300 m. Grows in well developed rain forest and gallery forest. Also occurs in Asia, Malesia and the SW Pacific islands.

Fruit eaten by Cassowaries and Fig-parrots. Cooper & Cooper (1994).

Ficus variegata Blume var. variegata, The Gardens' Bulletin Singapore 18 : 33(1960). Ficus ehretioides Benth., Flora Australiensis 6: 171(1873), Type: Queensland. Rockingham bay, Dallachy.