Common Name:

General Information

Ficus enormis is an evergreen tree with a wide, dense, globose crown; it can grow 6 - 14 metres tall. The short, crooked bole can be 40 - 80cm in diameter[]. The plant often grows as an epiphyte on other trees and also on rocks[].
The tree is sometimes harvested from the wild for local use of its wood.

Known Hazards

None known

Botanical References

Range

S. America - Argentina, Paraguay, central, eastern and northern Brazil

Habitat

Found in a variety of forest formations and in savannah, favouring the more open, secondary formations where it can be found in rock cracks (where it can develop an intense root system) and as an epiphyte on other trees, especially palms[].

Properties

Other Uses Rating
Habit	Evergreen Tree
Height	10.00 m
Pollinators	Wasps
Cultivation Status	Wild

Cultivation Details

Succeeds in full sun to quite dense shade[]. Established plants are drought tolerant[].
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

None known

Other Uses

The wood is medium-textured, moderately heavy, soft, with poor mechanical properties and not very durable. Easy to work with, but of low quality, it is only used for door and panel fillings, boxes, plywood etc[].

Propagation

Seed - best sown as soon as it is ripe in a partially shaded position in a nursery seedbed. The seed is very small, so it should be sown on the surface and gently watered into the soil, being careful not to wash it away. A low germination rate can be expected, with the seed sprouting within 21 - 28 days[].

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