Common Name:

General Information

Ficus subulata is an evergreen shrub to a moderate sized tree with a bushy crown; it can grow 15 metres or more tall. Female forms, especially when shrubs, display a climbing habit, but male forms are usually erect. Plants are often epiphytic[, ]. Whether terrestrial or epiphytic, the plant often spontaneously develops elongating small-leafed branches which can spread up to 5 metres beyond the bushy crown and, on making contact with the trunk or branch of another plant, root at the nodes and develop a new bushy crown[].
The tree is planted as a pioneer species in reforestation projects in Thailand[].

Known Hazards

None known

Botanical References

,

Range

E. Asia - China, Nepal, Sikkim, Bhutan, Myanmar, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, New Guinea.

Habitat

Sparse forests, usually at elevations below 800 metres[]. Frequent in lowland and mountain rain-forest in Malaysia, ascending to 2,000 metres, and often a common low-level epiphyte[].

Properties

Other Uses Rating
Habit	Evergreen Tree
Height	10.00 m
Growth Rate	Fast
Pollinators	Insects
Cultivation Status	Wild, ,

Cultivation Details

A fast-growing tree[].
A dioecious species, both male and female forms need to be grown if fruit and seed are required[].
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

None known

Medicinal

None known

Agroforestry Uses:

The tree is planted as a pioneer species in northern Thailand in reforestation projects to restore native woodland - it is planted in degraded woodland and open areas in a mix with various other species that all have the ability to grow fast; produce dense, weed-suppressing crowns; and attract seed-dispersing wildlife, particularly birds and bats[].

Other Uses

None known

Propagation

Seed -

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