Common Name:

General Information

Ficus ovata is an evergreen, much-branched shrub or a tree with a spreading crown; it usually grows to around 10 metres tall, but specimens up to 25 metres have been recorded. The bole is straight.[, ]. It often starts life as an epiphyte in the branch of a tree and can eventually send down aerial roots that, once they reach the ground, provide extra nutrients that help the plant grow more vigorously. These aerial roots can completely encircle the trunk of the host tree, constricting its growth - this, coupled with the more vigorous top growth, can lead to the fig outcompeting and killing the tree in which it is growing[, ]. In older trees the crown can be festooned with pendulous aerial roots[].
The tree is a popular source of fibre in Africa, being used especially to make clothing. It is sometimes left in cultivations following forest clearing, and is frequently cultivated in parts of Africa for its fibre[, ].

Known Hazards

None known

Botanical References

Range

Africa - widespread from Senegal to Eritrea and Ethiopia, south to Angola, Zambia, Mozambique and Madagascar.

Habitat

Wooded savannah; edge of gallery forests; river sides; secondary forests; rain-forest; evergreen bushland; farmbush; lakesides; swamp forest (mushitu) margins, dambos; at elevations up to 2,100 metres[].

Properties

Medicinal Rating
Other Uses Rating
Habit	Evergreen Tree
Height	0.00 m
Pollinators	Wasps
Cultivation Status	Cultivated, Semi-cultivated, Wild

Cultivation Details

Found in the wild in a wide range of 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

None known

Medicinal

The latex is used to stimulate lactation[].

Other Uses

A fibre is obtained from the bark[].
Long strips of the bark are used to make traditional garments of the aSukwa women[]. The garment consists of a belt about 10cm wide stiffened with a strip of harder bark inside and coloured with various bright designs, looped over this belt at back and front is a very long strip of bark softened and sewn with string into a thick belt[]

Propagation

Seed -

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