Common Name:

General Information

Ficus grossularioides is a shrub or a small tree; it can grow up to 13 metres tall. The bole can be around 6cm in diameter[, ].
The tree is sometimes harvested from the wild for local use as a food, medicine and source of a low quality wood.

Known Hazards

None known

Botanical References

Range

Southeast Asia - Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia.

Habitat

In disturbed (open) mixed dipterocarp, keranga, swamp and coastal forests at elevations up to 400 metres. Usually in regrowth, along roads, padis and plantations. Also common along rivers and streams[].

Properties

Edibility Rating
Medicinal Rating
Other Uses Rating
Habit	Shrub
Height	0.00 m
Pollinators	Wasps
Cultivation Status	Wild

Cultivation Details

Usually found wild in sandy soils[].
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

Young shoots - raw or cooked[, ].

Medicinal

The latex is used as a remedy against scorpion bites[].

A decoction of the leaves is used against kidney complaints[, ].

Other Uses

The wod is used for temporary construction, mouldings, interior work, fruit crates[].
The wood is used for fuel[].

Propagation

Seed -

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