Common Name:

General Information

Ficus pseudopalma is a small, usually unbranched or sparingly branched shrub or tree that can grow up to 8 metres tall[, ]. The stem can be 5cm in diameter[].
The plant is harvested from the wild for local use as a food and medicine. It is cultivated locally for the edible young sprouts and is also often grown as an ornamental[].

Known Hazards

None known

Botanical References

Range

Southeast Asia - Philippines.

Habitat

Thickets at low elevations[]. Secondary forests and the edges of primary forests[].

Properties

Edibility Rating
Medicinal Rating
Habit	Tree
Height	5.00 m
Pollinators	Wasps
Self-fertile	No
Cultivation Status	Cultivated, Ornamental, 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[].
A dioecious species, both male and female forms need to be grown if fruit and seed are required[].

Edible Uses

Young shoots - raw or cooked[, , ]. Delicious in salads, they are also cooked as a potherb[].

Fruit[].

Medicinal

A decoction of the leaves is used in the treatment of diabetes and kidney stones[].

The plant contains flavonoids, unsaturated sterol and triterpene, steroid glycoside, saponin, tannin and phenol[].

Other Uses

None known

Propagation

Seed -

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