心葉榕

Occurs east of Chenab in subhimalayan zone (Parker, l.c.). Occasionally cultivated in Lahore and commonly mistaken for F. religiosa to which it closely resembles in leaf shape.

The twigs and leaves are lopped for cattle. The juice and fruits are reported to be emetic and anthelmintic.

Trees, ca. 15 m tall, usually epiphytic. Bark gray, wrinkled when dry. Stipules caducous, ovate-lanceolate, 1.5-2.5 cm, scar conspicuous. Petiole 6-8 cm, glabrous; leaf blade cordate to ovate-cordate, 6-13 × 6-11 cm, ± leathery, glabrous, base ± cordate to broadly cuneate, apex acuminate; basal lateral veins 4, outer 2 basal veins short and thin, secondary veins 5 or 6 on each side of midvein. Figs axillary on leafy branchlets, paired or in small clusters on leafless older branchlets, with dark spots when young, dark purple when mature, globose, 1-1.5 cm in diam., sessile; involucral bracts orbicular, small; apical bracts ± navel-like. Male, gall, and female flowers within same fig. Male flowers: few, scattered among other flowers; calyx lobes 3, spatulate; stamen 1. Gall and asexual flowers: calyx lobes 3, lanceolate. Female flowers: ovary white, ovoid, smooth; style persistent, long; stigma clavate. Achenes thin, tuberculate and with adherent liquid; style long; stigma clavate.

A large, deciduous, upto 15 m tall, glabrous tree with irregular-shaped crown. Trunk c. 1.5 m in circumference, with subercet branches without aerial roots, bark grey or pale-grey, flaky, young twigs glabrous. Leaves with 4.10, cm. long, grooved or flattened petiole; lamina ovate-broadly ovate, (8-) 10-15 (-18) cm long, (5-) 6-10 (12) cm broad, 5 (-7)-nerved at the truncate to subcordate base, margins entire or ± wavy, apex gradually narrowed into 2-3 cm long acumen, glossy above, glabrous on both sides, lateral nerve 4-6 pairs, intercostals irregular with fine reticulations; stipules narrowly ovate-lanceolate, 10-25 mm long, acute, brownish. Hypanthodia sessile, in axillary pairs and around old leaf scars, globose, 8-10 m in diameter, whitish with dark spots, subtended by 3, rotundate basal bracts, apical orifice closed by 3 bracts; internal bristles absent-Male flowers: few, ostiolar; sepals 3, spathulate; stamen solitary, filament at lost, as anther. Female and gall flowers: sepals 3, united, lanceolate; ovary obovoid with long style, stigma clavate. Figs globose, 12-15 mm in diameter, black smooth.

W Yunnan [Bhutan, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Nepal, Sikkim, Thailand, Vietnam].

Himalaya, India, Burma, Indo-China, Malaysia.

Distribution: Pakistan, N.W. to N.E. & C. India, Bangladesh, Burma, Malayasia.

200 m

Fl. & Fr. Per.: March-November.

Along trails; 600-700 m.

Ficus cordifolia Roxburgh (1832), not Blume (1825); Urostigma rumphii (Blume) Miquel.