Common Name:

General Information

Ficus padana is a sparingly branched tree growing up to 13 metres tall. The bole is up to 30cm in diameter[].
The tree is sometimes harvested from the wild for local use as a food and source of fibre and wax.

Known Hazards

None known

Botanical References

Range

Southeast Asia - Indonesia in Java and Sumatra.

Habitat

Secondary forest, abandoned estates etc. From the lowland ascending to 1,500 metres frequent, not rarely social and wide-spread[].

Properties

Edibility Rating
Other Uses Rating
Habit	Tree
Height	10.00 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[]. The depressed-globose fruit can be 40 - 55mm in diameter[].

Medicinal

None known

Other Uses

A wax is obtained from the plant[]. It has been recommended for use in batik work[].

A fibre obtained from the bark is used to make rope[].

Propagation

Seed -

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