Ficus communis

• Interesting Facts
• Common Names
• Description
• Taxonomy
• Similar Species
• More Info
• Further Reading
• Notes

Interesting Facts

Common Names

Description

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]

Taxonomy

Notes

Publishing author : Lam. Publication : Fl. Fran?. (Lamarck) 3: 652 1779 [1778 publ. after 21 Mar 1779]

Name Status: Accepted Name .

Last scrutiny: 17-Oct-2001

Similar Species

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

• Search for Pictures: images.google.com
• Search for Scholarly Articles: Google Scholar
• Search using Scientific Name and Vernacular Names: All the Web | AltaVista Canada | AltaVista | Excite | Google | HotBot | Lycos
• Search using Specialized Databases: GenBank | Medline | Scirus | CISTI/CAL | Agricola Periodicals | Agricola Books

Further Reading

• American seashells. With illus. by Frederick M. Bayer. New York, Van Nostrand[1954] url , p. 200.
• An up-to-date systematic list of 3200 seashells from Greenland to Texas: translation, explanation, and gender of their names. [Brooklyn?]1954. url .
• Arboretum et fruticetum britannicum; or, The trees and shrubs of Britain, native and foreign, hardy and half-hardy, pictorially and botanically delineated, and scientifically and popularly described; with their propagation, culture, mana by J. C. Loudon. London, Printed for the author, 1838. url p. 1365.
• Bulletins of American paleontology. 30 1947 Ithaca, N.Y., Paleontological Research Institution [etc.] url p. 321, p. 391.
• Flora diaetetica, or, History of esculent plants, both domestic and foreign: in which they are accurately described, and reduced to their Linnaean generic and specific names; with their English names annexed, and ranged under eleven general heads / by Charles Bryant. London: B. White, 1783. url p. 194.
• Hand-list of Coniferae: grown in the Royal botanic gardens. London: Printed for H. M. Stationery off. by Darling & son, Ltd., 1903. url p. 637.
• Marine shells of the western coast of Flordia / by Louise M. Perry and Jeanne S. Schwengel. Illus. by W. Hammersley Southwick, Axel A. Olsson, and Frank White. Ithaca, N.Y.: Paleontological Research Institution, 1955. url p. 149, p. 150, p. 256.
• Report of the Australian Association for the advancement of Science. Sidney, The Association. url p. 361.
• Texas conchologist. Houston, Houston Conchology Society url p. 53.
• The Nautilus. Melbourne, Fla., etc., American Malacologists, inc., etc. url p. 151, p. 31, p. 33, p. 34, p. 35.
• The archaeological use and distribution of Mollusca in the Maya lowlands New Orleans, 1969. url p. 114, p. 13, p. 38, p. 46, p. 47, p. 49, p. 50, p. 53, p. 57, p. 76.
• Transactions of the San Diego Society of Natural History. 17 1973 [San Diego]: The Society, 1905-1989. url p. 108.
• Chang Siushih, Wu Chengyih & Cao Ziyu. 1998. Moroideae. In: Chang Siushih & Wu Chengyih, eds., Fl. Reipubl. Popularis Sin. 23(1): 1219.
• Chang Siushih, Wu Chengyih & Cao Ziyu. 1998. Moroideae. In: Chang Siushih & Wu Chengyih, eds., Fl. Reipubl. Popularis Sin. 23(1): 1219.

Notes

Contributors

• Brands, S.J. (comp.) 1989-present. The Taxonomicon. Universal Taxonomic Services, Zwaag, The Netherlands. Accessed January 11, 2012.

Identifiers

• Catalogue of Life Accepted Name Code: ITS-73163
• Zipcode Zoo Species Identifier: 4323300

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]

©2004-2012 David Stang. All rights reserved.