Common Name:

General Information

Ficus hirta is an evergreen shrub or a small tree with a much-branched crown; it can grow up to 10 metres tall[].
The plant is sometimes harvested from the wild for local use as a food and medicine.

Known Hazards

None known

Botanical References

,

Range

E. Asia - southern China, India, Nepal, Bhutan, Sikkim, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia, Indonesia.

Habitat

Forests and forest margins at low elevations[]. In secondary jungle, waysides, waste-places, and by the edge of the forest, from the lowland ascending to 2,000 metres[].

Properties

Edibility Rating
Medicinal Rating
Habit	Evergreen Shrub
Height	6.00 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

Fruit - raw[, ]. A sweet flavour, they are especially relished by children[]. The fruit is up to 3cm in diameter[].

Very young shoot tops - eaten raw as a side dish with rice[].

Medicinal

A decoction of the stem bark is used in the treatment of fevers[].

The milky latex of the plant is applied to wounds[].

A paste of the roots and fruit is applied to the wound in the treatment of snakebites[].

Other Uses

None known

Propagation

Seed - germinates best at a temperature around 20°c[].
Air layering[].
Tip cuttings around 4 - 12cm long, taken from lateral branches[].

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