Common Name: Rock fig

General Information

Ficus petiolaris is a small to large, evergreen tree, usually between 6 - 9 metres tall but with occasional specimens up to 27 metres[].
The tree is sometimes harvested from the wild for local use as a food, medicine and a source of timber, gum and fibre.

Known Hazards

None known

Botanical References

Range

Central to north America - Mexico from Baja California and Sonora south to Oaxaca.

Habitat

Often found growing in rocky areas where the roots stretch over rocks, often grotesquely, in search of rooting soil[].

Properties

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

Cultivation Details

Succeeds in full sun or partial shade[].
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 or dried for later use[].

Medicinal

A decoction of the roots allays the thirst of those who suffer from fever, alleviates pains of the chest, is purgative and
vomitive[].

The latex is applied topically as a treatment for sores of the lips and chronic ulcers[].

Other Uses

The bark has been used as a source of fibre for the manufacture of paper[].

A latex containing rubber is obtained from the plant. This substance is elastic and adhesive and very ductile, gray in colour, and capable of being formed into membranes as delicate as soap bubbles, being in this state white and transparent ; exposed to the air it hardens and assumes a yellow tint, for which reason it should be kept in vessels full of water. In boiling water it softens and becomes more sticky. Its density is greater than that of water ; its odour is urine-like, and it has scarcely any taste[].
The latex contains 15% caoutchouc, 55% of a resin soluble in alcohol, and 5% of a resin soluble in ether[].
This gum is used by surgeons and others in Mexico for treating broken bones, hernia, etc[, ].

The strong, elastic, aerial roots have been used by native people in making suspension bridges[].

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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