The specific name is spelled baeuerleni in many publications; we are following the spelling in IPNI and the 'World Checklist of Selected Plant Families' (in review 2013)[].

Common Name:

General Information

Ficus baeuerlenii is a large, evergreen, climbing shrub with a thick, soft, corky bark[, ].
The tree is sometimes harvested from the wild for local use as a medicine.

Known Hazards

None known

Botanical References

Range

Australasia - New Guinea to the Solomon Islands and New Britain.

Habitat

Lowland rainforest and more open areas, along the banks of streams, at elevations around 450 metres[, ].

Properties

Medicinal Rating
Habit	Climber
Height	0.00 m
Pollinators	Wasps
Cultivation Status	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

The latex of the inner bark is drunk to treat diarrhoea or dysentery[].

Other Uses

None known

Propagation

Seed -

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