Figwood

Medium-sized trees, evergreen, usually epiphytic. Branchlets pale yellow to yellowish brown, smooth. Stipules caducous, yellow and white, lanceolate, 1.5-2.5 cm, thinly membranous. Leaves alternate; petiole thick, curved, 0.5-1.5 cm, with scurfy hairs; leaf blade narrowly ovate, ± symmetric, 16-22 × 4-6.5 cm, leathery, glabrous, stoma impressed, base slightly oblique, apex mucronate; basal lateral veins not elongated, secondary veins 6-11 on each side of midvein. Figs axillary on normal leafy shoots, solitary or paired, yellowish orange to purplish brown when mature, ovoid, 8-10 mm in diam., smooth; peduncle 3-6 mm; involucral bracts absent. Male flowers: calyx lobes 4, white or yellow; stamen 1(or 2), rudimentary ovary absent. Gall flowers: sessile or shortly pedicellate; calyx lobes 4; ovary ellipsoid to obovoid, smooth; style lateral or apical; stigma enlarged. Achenes ellipsoid, 8-10 mm in diam.

Low elevations. Taiwan [Indonesia, Japan (Ryukyu Islands), New Guinea, Philippines; NE Australia, Pacific Islands].

Ficus decaisneana Miquel; F. esmeralda F. M. Bailey; F. firmula Miquel; F. inaequifolia Elmer; F. magnifica Elmer; F. philippinensis Miquel; F. philippinensis f. magnifica (Elmer) Sata; F. philippinensis f. setibracteata (Elmer) Sata; F. pinkiana F. Mueller; F. setibracteata Elmer; F. trematocarpa Miquel; F. virgata var. philippinensis (Miquel) Corner.

Ficus virgata, commonly known as figwood, is a tree in the family Moraceae, native to areas of Southeast Asia and the western Pacific. It grows as a strangler on other trees, eventually smothering and killing its host.