Common Name:

General Information

Ficus tsjakela is a large, briefly deciduous tree[].
The tree is cultivated in southern India to provide shade in coffee plantations[].

Known Hazards

None known

Botanical References

Range

E. Asia - India, Sri Lanka.

Habitat

Moist regions at elevations up to 600 metres in Sri Lanka[]. Forests[].

Properties

Other Uses Rating
Habit	Deciduous Tree
Height	0.00 m
Pollinators	Wasps
Cultivation Status	Cultivated, Wild

Cultivation Details

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

Agroforestry Uses:

The tree is often planted in order to provide shade for trees in coffee plantations[].

Other Uses

The brown wood is soft, in alternate concentric rings of narrow dark loose tissue and broader pale firmer tissue, the
dark layers very conspicuous on a vertical section[]. No uses are mentioned.

Propagation

Seed -

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