Common Name:

General Information

Ficus obliqua is an evergreen tree with a crown that often spreads widely; it can grow from 4 - 50 metres tall, though is more commonly less than 15 metres tall. It often starts life as an epiphyte in the branch of a tree and can eventually send down aerial roots that, once they reach the ground, provide extra nutrients that help the plant grow more vigorously. These aerial roots can completely encircle the trunk of the host tree, constricting its growth - this, coupled with the more vigorous top growth, can lead to the fig outcompeting and killing the tree in which it is growing[, , ]. As the tree grows older it produces numerous aerial roots from the canopy that eventually become prop roots, feeding and supporting the tree and allowing the canopy to spread wider[].
The tree is harvested from the wild for local use as a medicine and source of fibre. The plant is occasionally found in home gardens[].

Known Hazards

None known

Botanical References

,

Range

Southeast Asia - Indonesia to New Guinea, eastern Australia, southwestern Pacific.

Habitat

Well developed rain forest on a variety of sites at elevations up to 1,000 metres[]. Rocky beaches and shores, in dry forest and secondary forest, on dry cliffs, and sometimes also cultivated in villages[].

Properties

Medicinal Rating
Other Uses Rating
Habit	Evergreen Tree
Height	20.00 m
Pollinators	Wasps
Cultivation Status	Cultivated, Wild

Cultivation Details

Succeeds in full sun to partial shade.
The plant can flower and produce fruit 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

None known

Medicinal

The latex has been as a medicine for sore joints[].

Other Uses

The inner bark has been used for making cloth when Broussonetia papyrifera was not available in sufficient quantity[].

The latex is used for caulking boats and waterproofing[].

The wood, including the aerial roots, is used locally in light construction, tool making etc[].
The wood is used for fuel[].

Propagation

Seed -

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