Common Name:

General Information

Ficus vogeliana is an evergreen tree with a spreading crown; it can grow 5 - 20 metres tall, exceptionally to 30 metres. The bole can be unbranched for up to twothirds of its height and 30 - 90cm in diameter; with buttresses or root-spurs extending tortuously for a long distance[].
The tree is harvested from the wild for local use as a food, medicine and source of materials. It is sometimes cultivated in west Africa as a fibre crop[]. A special cultivar 'Bofuain Banzo' is grown for this purpose[].

Known Hazards

None known

Botanical References

Range

Tropical Africa - Senegal to Central African Republic and Uganda, south to northern Angola and DR Congo.

Habitat

Secondary forest; evergreen forest in moist, swampy or periodically flooded sites (e.g. stream banks); riparian in rain-forest; often planted; at elevations from sea level to 1,200 metres[].

Properties

Edibility Rating
Medicinal Rating
Other Uses Rating
Habit	Evergreen Tree
Height	15.00 m
Pollinators	Wasps
Cultivation Status	Cultivated, Semi-cultivated, 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

The figs are eaten[, ]. The red to orange-red, globose fruit can be 20 - 30mm in diameter[].
The fruits are poduced on massive leafless branches that can be up to 10 metres long, arising from the base of the bole (with the figs on the ground in the leaf litter) or on usually short branchlets on the trunk up to the main branches[].

Medicinal

Bark extracts are drunk as a laxative and emetic, and for the treatment of diarrhoea and dysentery. A bark decoction is used to induce vomiting[].
An infusion of the bark, root or leaf is used as a wash for leprosy[].

The figs and latex are applied to wounds, whereas juice or latex is also applied to flea blisters[].

Agroforestry Uses:

The tree is sometimes retained as a shade tree when land is cleared for cocoa production[].

Other Uses

Wood ash is used for soap-making[].

The bark is made into cloth[].

In Sierra Leone the bark is recorded to be used for dyeing cloth[].

The reddish wood has a beautiful figure, the texture is coarse. The wood is light in weight and soft. It is suitable for carpentry[]. Traditionally, the bole is made into canoes[].

Propagation

Seed -

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