Ficus padana (PROSEA)

Plant Resources of South-East Asia Introduction

List of species

Ficus padana Burm.f.

Protologue: Moraceae

Ficus elegans Hassk., F. toxicaria L.

• Indonesia: hamberang (Sundanese), dedek, kebeg (Javanese).

Indonesia (West Java).

After boiling the latex yields a kind of light grey wax which in Java is used in batik making. The bark can be used for tying. The leaves are used as fodder for livestock and the figs are eaten by humans. The latex is said to cure haematuria.

Tree, 6-15 m tall, widely but not strongly branched, trunk up to 30 cm in diameter, containing milky latex. Leaves arranged spirally; petiole up to 18 cm long; blade ovate to obovate, 18-36 cm × 10-25 cm, base cordate, entire or palmately 5-7-lobed, shallowly serrate-dentate, whitish or yellowish tomentose below. Inflorescence a fig, axillary, depressed globose, 4-5 cm in diameter, black-red when ripe, on peduncle 1 cm long, subtended by 3-4 bracts. F. padana grows in western Java in young secondary forest, often gregariously, up to 1500 m altitude. In tea plantations it is sometimes a noxious weed, growing inside tea shrubs from where it is difficult to eradicate.

5, 6, 23, 27.