Common Name:

General Information

Ficus amplissima is an evergreen tree with a widely spreading crown; it can grow up to 20 metres tall. 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.
The tree is sometimes harvested from the wild for its wood. It is grown to provide shade in coffee plantations and is often planted in avenues[].

Known Hazards

None known

Botanical References

Range

E. Asia - India, Sri Lanka, the Maldives.

Habitat

A subcanopy tree in disturbed evergreen forests at elevations up to 1,000 metres.

Properties

Other Uses Rating
Habit	Evergreen Tree
Height	15.00 m
Pollinators	Wasps
Cultivation Status	Cultivated, Ornamental, 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 used to provide shade in coffee plantations[].

Other Uses

The dark brownish-coloured wood has a tinge of green in it. The wood has a hard, straight grain, like a Sapeli mahogany, but with a smoother surface. It is an attractive wood for good quality decorative woodwork, the transverse grain marked by wide patches of dark-coloured concentric layers[].

Propagation

Seed -

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Captcha: if i have 3 bananas, and i eat them all, how many bananas did i just eat?