Common Name: Sandpaper Fig

General Information

Sandpaper fig is an evergreen shrub, sometimes with a scrambling habit, or a tree that usually grows up to 7 metres tall, but exceptionally to 10 metres. The bole is up to 80cm in diameter. The plant often produces root suckers and can then form extensive colonies[, ].
The plant is harvested from the wild for local use as a food, medicine and source of materials.

Known Hazards

The latex from the bark is recorded to be urticant (causing a rash)[].

Botanical References

Range

Africa - widespread from Senegal to Ethiopia and Somalia, south to Namibia, Botswana and northern S. Africa.

Habitat

River banks in savannah regions; gallery; cascade; scrub; locally common; floodplains; sand banks, swampy places; usually forming dense thickets or stands; often associated with Salix subserrata; at elevations from sea level to 2,600 metres[].

Properties

Edibility Rating
Medicinal Rating
Other Uses Rating
Habit	Evergreen Tree
Height	6.00 m
Growth Rate	Fast
Pollinators	Wasps
Self-fertile	No
Cultivation Status	Wild

Cultivation Details

The plant tolerates prolonged inundation of the soil[].
A fast-growing plant[].
Branches often root when they touch the ground, resulting in the formation of thickets[].
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[].
The flowers are pollinated by the wasp Kradibia gestroi[].
A dioecious species, both male and female forms need to be grown if fruit and seed are required[].

Edible Uses

The leaf is eaten in Senegal[].

The fruit is eaten and can be made into a fermented drink[].

Medicinal

The leaf sap and a decoction of the root are taken for the treatment of schistosomiasis, and the leaf sap or the powdered root is sprinkled on syphilitic ulcers[].

A dichloromethane extract from the leaf has shown fungicidal activity against Cladosporium cucumerinum, due to the presence of the furanocoumarin psoralen[]. The extract also showed inhibitory activity on the enzyme acetylcholinesterase[].
A methanol extract of the twig has shown radical scavenging activity[].

Other Uses

The bark, stripped off in long lengths, is used for making rope and string[].

Split twigs are used for plaiting baskets[].

The rough leaves are used as sandpaper for polishing wooden objects such as sticks, spears, bows, tool handles and earrings[].

The leaf and the latex from the bark are used for tanning[].

The wood is soft[].
Unspecified plant parts are used for construction of house roofs and as fuel[].

Propagation

Seed - easy[].
Cuttings root easily[].

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