Common Name:

General Information

Ficus pungens is usually a small to medium-sized tree that can grow up to 25 metres tall. The bole sometimes has short stilt roots[]. The stalks have very sharp thorns, though these can fall off[].
The tree is harvested from the wild for local use as a food, medicine and source of fibre. A fairly common vegetable within its native range, it is occasionally cultivated as a food crop[].

Known Hazards

In some reports the latex is reported to be very poisonous[].

Botanical References

Range

Southeast Asia - Indonesia, Philippines to New Guinea, New Britain.

Habitat

Locally common in primary and secondary lowland forest, at elevations up to 1,700 metres[]. Normally found near streams and drains[].

Properties

Edibility Rating
Medicinal Rating
Other Uses Rating
Habit	Tree
Height	15.00 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

Leaves - cooked and eaten as a vegetable[, ].

The water that flows from a large root that has been cut obliquely can be drunk after boiling[].

Medicinal

Although there are some reports of the latex being very poisonous, in some regions the root or leaf latex is swallowed to cure cough quickly[, ].

The leaves, combined with those of an unknown Mallotus species, are crushed and mixed with water - this solution is said to relieve a bad cough[].
Heated leaves are applied externally to relieve body pains[, ].

The bark is crushed and squeezed, the extracted juice being taken orally for a week as a treatment for asthma[].

Other Uses

The fibrous bark is used to make mats[].

The fibrous branches used to clean teeth[].

The leaves of some species are used to wrap food for cooking[].

The leaves of some species are quite rough and can be used as a sandpaper substitute and for scouring pots[].

The wood of plants in this genus is usually of low quality, light in weight, soft and not very durable. It is sometimes used for purposes such as light construction, digging sticks, yam stakes, etc.
The wood is also used for fuel and sometimes for making fire by friction[].

Propagation

Seed -

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