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Ficus lacunata

Overview

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Vulnerable
Threat status

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]

Habitat

Ecology: A tree found in low and high Andean forest (1,500–2,500 m ).[3]

Taxonomy

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Notes

Publishing author : Kvitvik Publication : Brittonia 49: 270, fig. 1997

Similar Species

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Members of the genus Ficus

ZipcodeZoo has pages for 2399 species, subspecies, varieties, forms, and cultivars in this genus. Here are just 100 of them:

F. abelii · F. abscondita · F. abutifolia · F. abutilifolia · F. acamptophylla · F. acanthocarpa · F. acanthophylla · F. acarouaniensis · F. acidula · F. acreana · F. acrocarpa · F. acrorrhyncha · F. aculeata · F. aculeata var. aculeata · F. aculeata var. micracantha · F. acuminata · F. acuminatissima · F. acuta · F. acutifolia · F. acutiloba · F. adamsii · F. adelpha · F. adenosperma · F. adenosperma var. chaetophora · F. adenosperma var. glabra · F. adhaerens · F. adhatodaefolia · F. adhatodifolia · F. adnascens · F. adolfi-friderici · F. adolphi-friderici · F. aechmophylla · F. aegrophylla · F. aequatorialis · F. affinior · F. affinis · F. afganica · F. afganistanica · F. afghanica · F. afghanistanica (Fig Tree) · F. africana · F. afzelii · F. afzelii var. caillei · F. aganophila · F. aggregata · F. aguaraguensis · F. agusanensis · F. ahernii · F. ajajuensis · F. akaie · F. alba · F. albert-smithii (Figueira-Do-Alberto) · F. albescens · F. albidula · F. albinervia · F. albipila · F. albipila var. albipila · F. albomaculata · F. albotomentosa · F. aldabrensis · F. alii · F. alnifolia · F. alongensis · F. alpestris · F. alternans · F. altimeraloo · F. altissima (Gao Shan Rong) · F. altissima 'Aureo Variegata' (Council Tree) · F. alutacea · F. alvareziana · F. amadiensis · F. amara · F. amazonia · F. amazonica (Figueira-AmazÔnica) · F. amblisyce · F. amblyphylla · F. amboinensis · F. americana (Central American Banyan) · F. americana subsp. greiffiana · F. americana subsp. guianensis · F. ampana · F. ampelas · F. ampelos · F. ampla · F. amplissima · F. amplocarpa · F. ampullacea · F. ampulliformis · F. anacardiifolia · F. anastomosans · F. andamanica · F. andicola · F. androbrota · F. androchaete · F. anggica · F. angladei · F. angolensis · F. anguina · F. angulata · F. angustata

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 November 20, 2007:

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. Cornejo, X., Montúfar, R. & Pitman, N. 2004. In IUCN 2008. 2008 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. IUCNRedList.org. Downloaded July 19, 2008. [back]
Last Revised: 2009-07-03