Common Name:

General Information

Ficus melinocarpa is a deciduous tree that can grow up to 35 metres tall[]. The bole has tall spreading buttresses up to 4 metres high and to 2 metres wide[]. This is usually not a strangling fig, but prop roots may be present at the base[].
The tree is sometimes harvested from the wild for local use of its low quality wood.

Known Hazards

There is a report that the latex could be irritating[].

Botanical References

Range

Southeast Asia - Malaysia, Indonesia, Philippines to New Guinea, New Britain and the Solomon Islands.

Habitat

Often a canopy tree in lowland to montane forest, at elevations up to 2,200 metres[].

Properties

Other Uses Rating
Habit	Deciduous Tree
Height	25.00 m
Pollinators	Wasps
Cultivation Status	Wild

Cultivation Details

The branches often become hollow and are said to afford nesting sites for ants, who then protect the tree from insect attack[].
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 of low quality, but is used for temporary construction, mouldings, interior work, drawers, laundry tubs, fruit crates etc[].
The wood is used for fuel[].

Propagation

Seed -

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