Ficus dammaropsis (PROSEA)

Plant Resources of South-East Asia Introduction

List of species

Ficus dammaropsis Diels

Protologue: Flora 128: 28, t. 2A, 2B (1933).

Family: Moraceae

Synonyms

• Dammaropsis kingiana Warb. (1891).

Vernacular names

• Papua New Guina: kapiak (Pidgin).

Distribution

Indigenous to New Guinea where it is also cultivated.

Uses

Young leaves are eaten cooked as a vegetable, especially the midrib. Older leaves are used for wrapping up other food during cooking. Fruits are edible, but only eaten in times of scarcity. The bark is used for clothing, and the bark fibre is used to make rope.

In New Guinea, a daily drink of stem latex is said to relieve a severe cough.

Observations

• A small tree up to 10 m tall, with strong and flexible branches, containing milky juice.
• Leaves arranged spirally, broadly elliptical, to 90 cm × 60 cm, very variable in size and colour, base deeply cordate, apex shortly apiculate, margin sinuate, with 8-10 pairs of lateral veins, puberulous below, stipules 15-30 cm long.
• Fruit a large fig, axillary, solitary, sessile, up to 60 mm in diameter, covered by large overlapping lateral bracts, rose-red to reddish-brown; male flowers in many rows, with 2 stamens, female flowers sessile.

In temporary clearings by streams and rivers, and in secondary forest, up to 1000-2300 m altitude. Propagation is from seed. The tree resembles a breadfruit tree (Artocarpus altilis (Parkinson) Fosberg) and has the same name in Pidgin.

Selected sources

• Corner, E.J.H., 1965. Checklist of Ficus in Asia and Australasia with keys to identification. The Gardens' Bulletin Singapore 21(1): 1–186.
• Corner, E.J.H., 1978. Ficus dammaropsis and the multibracteate species of Ficus sect. Sycocarpus. Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. B. Biological sciences 281: 373–406.
• Department of Primary Industry, 1983. Leafy vegetables. Farming notes 30. Department of Primary Industry, Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea. 40 pp.
• French, B.R., 1986. Food plants of Papua New Guinea, a compendium. Australia Pacific Science Foundation. 407 pp.
• Holdsworth, D.K. & Kerenga, K., 1987. Medicinal plants of the Western Highlands, Papua New Guinea. International Journal of Crude Drug Research 25: 171-176.
• Mansfeld, R., 1986. Verzeichnis landwirtschaflicher und gaertnerischer Kulturpflanzen (ohne Zierpflanzen) [Register of agricultural and horticultural plants (withouth ornamentals)]. 2nd Edition, revised by J. Schultze-Motel. 4 volumes. Springer Verlag, Berlin, Germany. 1998 pp.
• Paijmans, K. (Editor), 1976. New Guinea vegetation. Elsevier Scientific Publishing Company, Amsterdam, the Netherlands. 209 pp.

vegetables and medicinals included

Main genus page

• Ficus (Medicinal plants)

Authors

• J.P. Rojo, F.C. Pitargue & M.S.M. Sosef