Common Name: Creeping Fig

General Information

Ficus pumila is an evergreen plant that varies in habit from a shrub, to a plant creeping along the ground or on walls, other trees etc[, ]. The stems can be 10 metres long, and it clings close to other objects by means of numerous aerial rootlets[].
The plant is gathered from the wild for local medicinal use and its edible fruit[]. It is cultivated in orchards and plantations of India, Sri Lanka and Japan for the edible fruits[]. In tropical and subtropical regions it is known as an ornamental plant and is used widely for covering walls, being a very effective deterrent to graffiti[, ]. Various selections are commercially grown as a pot plant in temperate regions[].

Known Hazards

None known

Botanical References

,

Range

E. Asia - China, Japan, Vietnam.

Habitat

Rocks and tree trunks[].

Properties

Edibility Rating
Medicinal Rating
Other Uses Rating
Habit	Evergreen Shrub
Height	10.00 m
Pollinators	Wasps
Cultivation Status	Cultivated, Ornamental, Wild

Cultivation Details

Succeeds in tropical and subtropical areas.
Succeeds in full sun to part shade[]. Succeeds in most reasonably moist but well-drained soils[].
Ficus pumila awkeotsang (Makino) Corner is the form usually cultivated for its fruit[].
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 - used for the production of jams and jellies[, ]. The pear-shaped fruit is yellowish green to pale red when mature, and measures 4 - 8cm long × 3 - 5cm wide[].

Medicinal

Both the aerial parts and the fruits are considered to be galactagogue and tonic, and are seen as a systemic remedy and blood reconstiluent. A decoction or tincture of either is used in treating conditions such as anaemia, chronic dysentery, haemorrhoids, galactophoritis, spermatorrhoea, impotence, menstrual disorders. dysuria, haematuria, constipation, rheumatism, lumbago. osteodynia, boils and impetigo[, ].
Externally the leaves are applied to carbuncles[].

The latex is reported to have anthelmintic properties[].

In cases of dropsy the plant ash is rubbed on the body[].

Agroforestry Uses:

The plant is traditionally grown in living fences in the northwestern Himalayas, where it helps to exclude livestock and other animals; mark out land boundaries; whilst also providing a range of medicinal and other uses[].

Other Uses

Planted as a nematode-resistant rootstock for Ficus carica[].

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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