Ficus watkinsiana F.M.Bailey

Moraceae

Bailey, F.M. (1891) Queensland Department of Agriculture and Stock. Botany Bulletin 2: 18. Type: Mooloolah, Field Naturalists, Dec. 1890; top of Bunya Mountains, H. Tryon top of Blackall Range, Alex. Anderson.

Green Leaved Moreton Bay Fig; Fig, Watkin's; Strangling Fig; Strangler Fig; Nipple Fig; Grey Leaved Moreton Bay Fig; Watkin's Fig; Figwood; Fig, Green Leaved Moreton Bay; Fig, Grey Leaved Moreton Bay; Fig, Nipple; Fig, Strangler; Fig, Strangling

A strangling fig. Dead bark yellow when cut. Exudate copious.

Stipules about 2.5-9 cm long, finely hairy. Leaf bearing twigs about 0.6-1 cm diam. Leaf blades about 8-20 x 2-7 cm. Petioles produce a milky exudate.

Male flowers dispersed among the fruitlets in the ripe fig. Anthers +/- reniform. Bracts at the base of the fig, two or three. Lateral bracts not present on the outside of the fig body.

Figs pedunculate, globular, depressed ovoid, about 25-40 x 15-35 mm. Orifice a bilabiate or triradiate slit, closed within the body of the fig by inflexed, but not interlocking, internal bracts.

Cotyledons orbicular, about 5-6 mm diam. First few pairs of leaves with a few small oil dots visible with a lens. At the tenth leaf stage: leaf blade ovate, apex acute, base obtuse, margin dentate, teeth obscure, glabrous; petiole glabrous; stipules sheathing the terminal bud, about 2-4 cm long, glabrous, falling early. Seed germination time 14 to 16 days.

Endemic to Australia, occurs in NEQ, CEQ and in south-eastern Queensland and north-eastern New South Wales but not in coastal central Queensland. Altitudinal range in NEQ from 700-1100 m. Grows in well developed upland and mountain rain forest on a variety of sites.

Fallen fruit eaten by Cassowaries. Cooper & Cooper (1994).

Ficus simmondsii F.M.Bailey, Queensland Agricultural Journal 25(5): 234(1910), Type: Coolangatta, J.H. Simmonds. Holo: BRI. Ficus bellingeri C.Moore, Handbook of the Flora of New South Wales : 81(1893), Type: On islands and banks of Bellinger river. Holo: NSW.