Common Name:

General Information

Ficus cordata is a shrub growing 2 - 5 metres tall or becoming a graceful, sometimes drooping tree with a dense, spreading crown; it usually grows 8 - 15 metres tall but in some parts of its range can reach 35 metres. The often tortuous bole can be up to 100cm in diameter[, , ].
The tree is harvested from the wild as a source of tannins. It is often grown as an ornamental[].

Known Hazards

None known

Botanical References

Range

Africa - almost throughout the continent and into the Arabian Peninsula, avoiding the regions of higher rainfall.

Habitat

Rocky hills and hill sides; lateritic pans; sandstone, granite, limestone, gneiss; riparian (rocky wadi sides, choked with sand, and wadi beds); wooded- and tall grass savannah; often growing directly from crevices of bare rock[].

Properties

Other Uses Rating
Habit	Tree
Height	15.00 m
Pollinators	Wasps
Cultivation Status	Ornamental, Wild

Cultivation Details

Found throughout the subarid to moist regions of Africa, from the subtropical to the tropical zones, but avoiding those areas with the highest rainfall[].

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

Other Uses

The bark is a source of tannins[].
The bark is used as a dye[].

Propagation

Seed -

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