This species name is often spelled Ficus ampelas, but the original name was written ampelos[].

Common Name:

General Information

Ficus ampelos is an evergreen, small to medium-sized tree; it usually grows up to 15 metres tall, exceptionally to 20 metres[]. The bole can be up to 30cm in diameter[].
The tree is harvested from the wild for local use as a food, medicine and sandpaper substitute.

Known Hazards

None known

Botanical References

Range

E. Asia - southern Japan, Taiwan, Malaysia, Indonesia, Philippines, New Guinea.

Habitat

A common plant in both dense primary forest and the more open secondary formations, at low elevations[]. Broad-leaved evergreen forests; at elevations up to around 600 metres[].

Properties

Edibility Rating
Medicinal Rating
Other Uses Rating
Habit	Evergreen Tree
Height	12.00 m
Pollinators	Wasps
Cultivation Status	Wild

Cultivation Details

Fig trees have a unique form of fertilization, each species relying on a single, highly specialized species of wasp that is itself totaly dependant upon that fig species in order to breed. The trees produce three types of flower; male, a long-styled female and a short-styled female flower, often called the gall flower. All three types of flower are contained within the structure we usually think of as the fruit.
The female fig wasp enters a fig and lays its eggs on the short styled female flowers while pollinating the long styled female flowers. Wingless male fig wasps emerge first, inseminate the emerging females and then bore exit tunnels out of the fig for the winged females. Females emerge, collect pollen from the male flowers and fly off in search of figs whose female flowers are receptive. In order to support a population of its pollinator, individuals of a Ficus spp. must flower asynchronously. A population must exceed a critical minimum size to ensure that at any time of the year at least some plants have overlap of emmission and reception of fig wasps. Without this temporal overlap the short-lived pollinator wasps will go locally extinct[].

Edible Uses

Fruits - raw or cooked[]. figs axillary and clustered on twigs, stipitate, subglobose, 7-10 mm in diameter, scabridulous, ripening to red or purple[].

Medicinal

The latex is diuretic. It is taken internally to treat diarrhoea[].
The latex of young leaves, mixed with water, is given to babies with mouth sores[].

Other Uses

The leaves are very rough to the touch and have been used as a substitute for sandpaper[].

Propagation

Seed -

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