Ficus pungens (PROSEA)

Plant Resources of South-East Asia Introduction

List of species

Ficus pungens Reinw. ex Blume

Protologue: Bijdr. fl. Ned. Ind. 9: 478 (1825).

Family: Moraceae

Synonyms

• Ficus myriocarpa Miq. (1867),
• Ficus ovalifolia Ridley (1916),
• Ficus kalingaensis Merr. (1922).

Vernacular names

• Indonesia: ngeseso (Halmahera), gososo (Ternate).
• Papua New Guinea: baguai (Harigen, Sepik), wopope (North Solomons Province), ohohone (Sui, Northern province)
• Philippines: Kalinga fig (En).

Distribution

From the Philippines, through the Moluccas and New Guinea to New Britain.

Uses

Young leaves are eaten cooked as a vegetable, especially in Papua New Guinea. In the Moluccas in dry seasons, roots are cut obliquely to yield water that is drinkable after boiling. The bark is used to make mats.

In Papua New Guinea, the root or leaf latex is swallowed to cure cough quickly. Heated leaves are applied externally to relieve body pains. In some reports the latex is reported to be very poisonous.

Observations

• A small to medium-sized tree up to 25 m tall, containing white latex, sometimes with short stilt roots, bark surface finely fissured, grey-brown.
• Branches armed with sharp spines.
• Leaves arranged spirally, ovate to broadly ovate, 12-45 cm × 8-36 cm, light green when young, base subcordate to subcuneate, apex with a short tip, margin serrate to denticulate, with 5-10 pairs of lateral veins, variably scabrid on both surfaces, stipules up to 7 cm long.
• Figs on leafless twigs from the trunk and branches, in clusters on long peduncles, paired, sessile, pyriform, 4-8 mm in diameter, puberulous but glabrescent, ripening red; flowers with 3-4 free tepals, male flowers in 1 row, sessile, with 1 stamen, female flowers sessile or shortly stipitate.

F. pungens is locally common in primary and secondary lowland forest, near streams and drains, up to 1700 m altitude.

Selected sources

vegetables and medicinals refrences merged

• Corner, E.J.H., 1965. Checklist of Ficus in Asia and Australasia with keys to identification. The Gardens' Bulletin Singapore 21(1): 1–186.
• 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.
• Heyne, K., 1927. De nuttige planten van Nederlandsch Indië [The useful plants of the Dutch East Indies]. 2nd edition. 3 volumes. Departement van Landbouw, Nijverheid en Handel in Nederlandsch Indië. 1953 pp. (3rd edition, 1950. van Hoeve, 's-Gravenhage, the Netherlands/Bandung, Indonesia. 1660 + CCXLI pp.
• Holdsworth, D.K., 1993. Medicinal plants of the Oro (Northern) Province of Papua New Guinea. International Journal of Pharmacognosy 31: 23-28.
• Holdsworth, D.K. & Balun, L., 1992. Medicinal plants of the East and West Sepik Provinces, Papua New Guinea. International Journal of Pharmacognosy 30: 218-222.
• Merrill, E.D., 1923–1926. An enumeration of Philippine flowering plants. 4 volumes. Bureau of Printing, Manila, the Philippines. 463, 530, 628, 515 pp. respectively.
• Salvosa, F.M., 1963. Lexicon of Philippine trees. Bulletin No 1. Forest Products Research Institute, College, Laguna, the Philippines. 136 pp.
• Siemonsma, J.S. & Kasem Piluek (Editors), 1993. Plant Resources of South-East Asia No 8. Vegetables. Pudoc Scientific Publishers, Wageningen, the Netherlands. 412 pp.

Main genus page

• Ficus (Medicinal plants)

Authors

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