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Ficus citrifolia

(Shortleaf Fig)

Overview

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The island of Barbados, meaning bearded or alnd of beards , is said to derive its name from the beard-like aerial roots of this species. for this species grows well in dry lowland and coastal situations, and capable of making the fringe of an island look bearded.

Interesting Facts

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Common Names

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Click on the language to view common names.

Common Names in English:

Shortleaf Fig, Barbados Strangler Fig, Barrenfig, Bearded Fig (Barbados), Bearded Fig Tree, Florida Strangler Fig, Short Leaf Fig (Bahamas), Short-Leaved Wild Fig (Bahamas), Shortleaf Wild Fig, Strangler Fig, White Fig, Wild Banyan, Wild Banyan Tree, Wild Banyantree, Wild Fig

Common Names in French:

Arali Siriz, Aralie-Cerise, Figuier (Guadeloupe), Figuier Barbu, Figuier Blanc, Figuier Maudit (Guadeloupe), Figyé Blan, Figyé Modi (Martinique)

Common Names in Spanish:

Dominican Republic), Higuillo (Cuba, Jagüerillo (Cuba), Jagüey (Cuba, Jagüey Blanco, Jagüey Macho (Puerto Rico), Jagueillo (Puerto Rico), Jigüeillo, Jigüerillo, Jugüeillo (Puerto Rico), Puerto Rico)

Common Names in unspecified:

Shortleaf Fig, Wild Banyantree

Description

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Family Moraceae

Trees , shrubs , vines , or rarely herbs, frequently with milky or watery latex, sometimes spiny . Stipules present, frequently caducous . Leaves alternate, rarely opposite; petiole often present and well-defined; leaf blade simple , sometimes with cystoliths , margin entire or palmately lobed , venation pinnate or palmate. Inflorescences axillary , frequently paired , racemose, spicate , capitate, or rarely cymose , sometimes a fig or syconium with flowers completely enclosed within a hollow receptacle. Flowers unisexual (plants monoecious or dioecious), small to very small. Calyx lobes (1 or) 2-4(-8), free or connate , imbricate or valvate . Corolla absent. Male flowers: stamens as many as and opposite to calyx lobes (except in Artocarpus), straight or inflexed in bud; anthers 1- or 2-loculed, crescent-shaped to top-shaped; pistillode (rudimentary sterile pistil) often present. Female flowers: calyx lobes usually 4; ovary superior, semi-inferior, or inferior, 1(or 2) -loculed; ovules 1 per locule, anatropous or campylotropous; style branches 1 or 2; stigmas usually filiform . Fruit usually a drupe, rarely an achene, enveloped by an enlarged calyx and/or immersed in a fleshy receptacle, often joined into a syncarp. Seed solitary; endosperm present or absent.

Between 37 and 43 genera and 1100–1400 species: widespread in tropical and subtropical areas, less common in temperate areas; nine genera and 144 species (26 endemic, five introduced ) in China.

Economically, the most important species are those of Morus and Maclura associated with the production of silk . Some species in Broussonetia, Maclura, and Morus are important for paper making; some species in Artocarpus, Ficus, and Morus have edible fruit; and some species of Artocarpus and Broussonetia are used for furniture or timber.[1]

Genus Ficus

Trees , shrubs , or woody vines , evergreen or deciduous, commonly epiphytic or scandent as seedlings; sap milky . Terminal buds surrounded by pair of stipules. Leaves alternate, monomorphic (dimorphic in F . pumila ) ; stipules caducous , fused, enclosing naked buds. Leaf blade : margins entire (lobed in F . carica ), rarely dentate ; venation pinnate or nearly palmate. Inflorescences small, borne on inner walls of fruitlike and fleshy receptacle (syconium) . Flowers: staminate and pistillate on same plant. Staminate flowers sessile or pedicellate ; calyx of 2-6 sepals; stamens 1-2, straight. Pistillate flowers sessile; ovary 1-locular; style unbranched, lateral . Syconia globose to pyriform ; achenes completely embedded in enlarged, fleshy, common receptacle and accessible by apical opening (ostiole) closed by small scales . x = 13.

Species ca. 750: tropics and subtropics, chiefly Asian.

Worldwide, Ficus is one of the largest genera of flowering plants . Members of the genus are usually treated as a separate tribe within Moraceae because of their unique inflorescence and wasp-dependent system of pollination.

The floral characters (especially of the American species, which are quite uniform ) are exceedingly difficult to use or of little value in distinguishing species. Therefore they are not used in the species descriptions. The form of the syconium, however, is often significant and taxonomically useful.[2]

Physical Description

Species Ficus citrifolia

Shrubs or trees , evergreen , to 15 m. Roots adventitious, aerial , hanging . Bark brownish, smooth . Branchlets grayish, glabrous or sparingly pubescent . Leaves: stipules 0.5-2 cm, glabrous; petiole (0.7-) 1.5-6 cm. Leaf blade ovate to elliptic or obovate , 3-14 × 1.5-8 cm, nearly leathery, base usually cordate or rounded to obtuse , margins entire, apex obtuse to acute or acuminate; surfaces abaxially and adaxially glabrous; basal veins 1(-2) pairs; lateral veins fewer than 10, if more than 10, not uniformly spaced. Syconia solitary or paired , pedunculate , yellow or red, spotted, globose to globose-ovoid, 8-18 mm diam., glabrous; peduncles to ca. 15 mm; subtending bracts 2, shortly connate , deltate or broadly rounded, 2-3 mm wide, glabrous or puberulent ; ostiole subtended by 3 bracts, bracts ovate, ca. 1 × 2-3 mm, slightly umbonate . [source]

Habit: Tree , Shrub

Flowers: Bloom Period: February, March, April, May, June, July. • Flower Color: inconspicuous, none

Size/Age/Growth

Size: over 40' tall.

Habitat

Tropical hammocks ; 0-10 m [3].

Biology

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Reproduction

Duration: Perennial

Growth

Sunlight: Sun Exposure: Full Sun .

Temperature: Cold Hardiness: 10b, 11. (map)

Taxonomy

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Synonyms

F. laevigata Vahl • F. populifolia Desfontaines • F. populnea var. brevifolia (Nuttall) E. Warburg • F. populnea Willdenow Subvar. Floridana E. warburg • Ficus brevifolia Nutt. • Ficus brevifolia Nuttall • Ficus laevigata Vahl

Notes

Publishing author : Mill . Publication : Gard. Dict., ed. 8. Ficus no. 10 1768 [16 Apr 1768]

Similar Species

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Members of the genus Ficus

ZipcodeZoo has pages for 164 species, subspecies, varieties, forms, and cultivars in this genus. Here are just 100 of them:

F. afghanistanica (Fig Tree) · F. albert-smithii (Figueira-Do-Alberto) · F. altissima (Council Tree) · F. altissima 'Aureo Variegata' (Council Tree) · F. amazonica (Figueira-Amaz) · F. americana (Jamaican Cherry Fig) · F. aripuanensis (Figueira-De-Aripuana) · F. arnottiana (Crow Fig (Ceylon)) · F. aspera (Mosaic Fig) · F. aurea (Florida Strangler Fig) · F. auriculata (Elephant Ear Fig Tree) · F. bengalensis (Banyan Tree) · F. benghalensis (Ban Yan) · F. benghalensis 'Bengal Tiger' (Ban Yan) · F. benjamina (Benjamin Fig) · F. benjamina 'Exotica' (Exotic Fig) · F. benjamina 'Golden Princess' (Weeping Chinese Banyan) · F. Benjamina 'Jamie K' (Chinese Banyan) · F. benjamina 'Natasha' (Miniature Ficus) · F. benjamina 'Starlight' (Chinese Banyan) · F. benjamina 'Variegata' (Chinese Banyan) · F. benjamina 'Wintergreen' (Chinese Banyan) · F. binnendijkii (Long-Leaf Fig) · F. binnendykii (Narrow Leaf Ficus) · F. blepharophylla (Mulemb) · F. broadwayi (Gameleira-Do-Cerrado) · F. calyptroceras (Gameleira-Branca) · F. capensis (Broom Cluster Fig) · F. carica (Brevo) · F. carica 'Alma' (Fig Tree) · F. carica 'Black Jack' (Black Jack Fig) · F. carica 'Black Mission' (Common Fig) · F. carica 'Brown Turkey' (Brown Turkey Fig) · F. carica 'Calimyrna' (Common Fig) · F. carica 'Celeste' (Common Fig) · F. carica 'Desert King' (Common Fig) · F. carica 'Italian Honey' (Fig) · F. carica 'Kadota' (Fig Tree) · F. carica 'Lsu Purple' (Common Fig) · F. carica 'Magnolia' (Common Fig) · F. carica 'Mission' (Mission Fig) · F. carica 'Osborn's Prolific' (Osborn's Prolific Fig) · F. carica 'Peter's Honey' (Peter's Honey Fig) · F. carica 'Petite Negra' (Common Fig) · F. carica 'Verte' (Common Fig) · F. carica 'Violette Du Bordeaux' (Common Fig) · F. carica 'Violette Normande' (Common Fig) · F. carica 'White Adriatic' (Common Fig) · F. castellviana (Figueira-De-Rond) · F. catappifolia (Falsa-Catapa) · F. citrifolia (Shortleaf Fig) · F. clusiifolia (Red-Fig Tree) · F. communis (Atlantic Figsnail) · F. congesta (Red Leaf Fig) · F. cordata (Namaqua Fig Tree) · F. cordata salicifolia (Wonderboom Fig (South Africa)) · F. coronata (Sandpaper Fig) · F. cotinifolia (Strangler Fig) · F. craterostoma (Forest Fig) · F. cyclophylla (Gameleira-Grande) · F. dammaropsis (Dinner Plate Fig) · F. deltoidea (Delta Fig) · F. dendrocida (Mata-Pau) · F. destruens (Rusty Fig) · F. drupacea (Brown-Woolly Fig) · F. drupacea var. pubescens (Fig) · F. elastica (Indian Rubberplant) · F. elastica 'Variegata' (Rubber Tree) · F. elastica var. Burgundy (Rubber Tree) · F. elastica 'Decora' (Rubber Tree) · F. elastica 'Honduras' (Rubber Plant) · F. elastica 'Sylvia' (Rubber Tree) · F. erecta (Inu-Biwa) · F. fraseri (Sandpaper Fig) · F. geniculata (Dotted Fig) · F. glumosa (Mountain Rock Fig) · F. gnaphalocarpa (Quicuio) · F. godeffroyi (Fig) · F. greiffiana (Figueira-De-Greif) · F. hirsuta (Molemb) · F. hispida (Boombil) · F. infectoria (White-Fruited Wavy Leaf Fig Tree) · F. ingens (Red-Leaved Rock Fig) · F. insipida (Red Fig (Belize)) · F. krukovii (Figueira-De-Krukoff) · F. lacor (Java Fig) · F. luschnathiana (Agarrapalo) · F. lutea (Big Leaved Fig) · F. lyrata (Fiddle Fig) · F. maclellandii (Alii Bush) · F. maclellandii 'Alii' (Banana-Leaf Ficus) · F. macrocarpa (Moreton Bay Fig) · F. macrophylla (Moreton Bay Fig) · F. macrophylla columnaris (Lord Howe Island Banyan) · F. malacocarpa (Cumacabali) · F. matiziana (Figueria-De-Matiz) · F. mexiae (Figueira-De-Mexia) · F. microcarpa var. crassifolia 'Green Mound' (Ficus) · F. microcarpa 'Green Island' (Dwarf Ficus) · F. microcarpa 'Hawaii' (Chinese Banyan)

More Info

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Further Reading

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Notes

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Contributors

Data Sources

Accessed through GBIF Data Portal February 01, 2008:

Identifiers

Footnotes

  1. Zhengyi Wu, Zhe-Kun Zhou & Michael G. Gilbert "Moraceae". in Flora of China Vol. 5 Page 21. Published by Science Press (Beijing) and Missouri Botanical Garden Press. Online at EFloras.org. [back]
  2. "Ficus". in Flora of North America Vol. 3. Oxford University Press. Online at EFloras.org. [back]
  3. "Ficus citrifolia". in Flora of North America Vol. 3. Oxford University Press. Online at EFloras.org. [back]
Last Revised: 7/15/2012