Ficus hispida L. fil.

Varieties have been based on differences in fruit size and color but these vary too continuously to justify recognition of formal taxa.

The fruits are edible and considered tonic, lactagogue and emetic.

Shrubs or small trees, coarsely hairy; dioecious. Stipules usually 4 and decussate on leafless fruiting branchlets, ovate-lanceolate. Leaves opposite; petiole 1-4 cm, with short thick hairs; leaf blade ovate, oblong, or obovate-oblong, 10-25 × 5-10 cm, thickly papery, abaxially with coarse gray hairs, adaxially rough and with short thick hairs, base rounded to ± cuneate, margin entire or bluntly toothed, apex acute to mucronate; secondary veins 6-9 on each side of midvein. Figs axillary on normal leafy shoots, sometimes on leafless branchlets or branchlets from main branches, solitary or paired, yellow or red when mature, top-shaped, 1.2-3 cm in diam., with short scattered hairs, pedunculate; involucre bracts present; lateral bracts sometimes present. Male flowers: many, near apical pore; calyx lobes 3, thinly membranous; stamen 1. Gall flowers: calyx absent; style subapical, short, thick. Female flowers: calyx lobes absent; style lateral, with hairs. Fl. Jun-Jul.

A large shrub or small tree, up to 10 (-15) m tall, all parts hispid, hairs pale brown to white. Trunk with lax branches, bark grey, smooth, flaky, young twigs hollow. Leaves opposite, with 105-405 (-10) cm long petiole with a gland near the node; lamina ovate-oblong to ovate-elliptic or ± obovate-oblong, (8-) 10-30 (-35) cm long, 2.5-20 (-25 cm broad, 35-costate at the cuneate to truncate-cordate base, crenate-serrate to ± entire, acute to shortly acuminate, scabrid on both sides, lateral nerves 5-9-pairs, intercostals curved-ascending; stipules lateral, ovate-lanceolate, 10-20 (-25) mm long, hairy beneath, caduceus; cystoliths present only on the lower side. Hypanthodia on 5-10 mm long peduncles, borne in paired clusters on leafless hanging or often trailing branchlets from the trunk or branches (cauliflorous), obovoid or turbinate, 10-15 mm in diameter, thinly hispid, subtended by 3, ± triangular, 1-1.5 mm long basal bracts, apical orifice closed by 5-6 bracts, longitudinally faintly 7-9-ribbed, with a few appressed lateral bracts, internal bristles absent. Male flowers: numerous in 1-2 whorls, ostiolar; sepals 3, concave; stamen single, fllament short. Gall flowers pedicellate or sessile in the male hypanthodium, with sepals enclosing the ovary. Female flowers: sessile or pedicellate, sepals united into a tube round the globose ovary; style subterminal, hairy. Figs depressed-globose to ± pyriform, 2-3 cm in diam., pale-green or greenish-yellow, brown pubescent.

India, Nepal, Ceylon, S. China, Indo-China, Malaysia and Australia.

Guangdong, Guangxi, Guizhou, Hainan, Yunnan [Bhutan, Cambodia, India, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Nepal, New Guinea, Sikkim, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Vietnam; Australia].

Probably undercollected from our area, although reported to be common in the subhimalayan zone from the Chenab eastwards (Parker, l.c.). Stewart, (l.c.) has also reported it from C-8 Jammu, Udhampur and Riasi, referring to Lambert’s collection which the author has not seen.

Distribution: Pakistan, India, Bangla Desh, Burma, Andaman Island, Sri Lanka, S. China, Malayasia, N. Australia, New Guinea: introduced and cultivated in U.S.A.

450-1100 m

Fl. & Fr. Per.: April-September.

Along streams, plains; 700-1500 m.

Covellia hispida (Linnaeus f.) Miquel; Ficus compressa S. S. Chang; F. heterostyla Merrill; F. hispida var. badiostrigosa Corner; F. hispida var. rubra Corner; F. letaqui H. Léveillé & Vaniot; F. sambucixylon H. Léveillé.

Fruits

Ficus hispida also known as the opposite leaf Fig is a small but well distributed species of tropical fig tree. It is dioecious, with male and female flowers on separate individuals. It occurs in many parts of Asia and as far south east as Australia. There is a large variety of local common names. Like a number of ficus, the leaves are sandpapery to touch. An unusual feature is the figs which hang on long stems.