Common Name:

General Information

Ficus deltoidea is usually found as an evergreen epiphyte or small shrub that can grow up to 2 metres tall[]. Another report says that it can become a tree up to 14 metres tall with a bole 26cm in diameter[]. The plant produces aerial roots when growing in warm, humid conditions[].
The plant is sometimes harvested from the wild for local medicinal use. It is often used as an ornamental. Various selections are commercially grown as pot plants in temperate regions[].

Known Hazards

The latex may have been applied as fish poison[].

Botanical References

Range

Southeast Asia - Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia.

Habitat

An understorey plant, common in lowlands and mountains, at elevations up to 3,200 metres. Generally occurring as an epiphyte, but found as a terrestrial bush on sandy shores and mountain tops and bogs[].

Properties

Medicinal Rating
Habit	Shrub
Height	2.00 m
Pollinators	Wasps
Cultivation Status	Ornamental, Wild

Cultivation Details

Succeeds in full sun and in partial shade. Found in a variety of soils including sandy, limestone and clay[].
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

None known

Medicinal

The plant is reported to be an effective remedy against leucorrhoea[]. As it promotes contraction of the vagina it is also considered an aphrodisiac[].

Other Uses

None known

Propagation

Seed -

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