Common Name:

General Information

Ficus masonii is a shrub or an often slender tree; it can grow from 2 - 15 metres tall[].
The tree is sometimes harvested from the wild for local use as a food and medicine.

Known Hazards

None known

Botanical References

Range

Pacific - Fiji.

Habitat

Usually found in dense forest, or on its edges, or in secondary formations, at elevations from near sea level to 1,150 metres[].

Properties

Edibility Rating
Medicinal Rating
Habit	Tree
Height	8.00 m
Pollinators	Wasps
Cultivation Status	Wild

Cultivation Details

The fruits are produced all year round[].
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 - cooked[]. The fruit, which turn from green or yellow to deep red when mature, is usually borne in clusters on the trunk and branchlets[].

Medicinal

The mashed leaves are used as a poultice on hives and for sores and boils[].

Other Uses

None known

Propagation

Seed -

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