Ficus fulva (PROSEA)

Plant Resources of South-East Asia Introduction

List of species

Ficus fulva Reinw. ex Blume

Family: Moraceae

Ficus chrysocarpa Reinw. ex Blume, F. patens Ridl.

• Stinging fig (En)
• Indonesia: hamerang badak, kuyang (Sundanese), kebeg (Javanese)
• Malaysia: lengan, tempan (Sarawak).

Southern Thailand, the Nicobar Islands, Malaysia and Indonesia.

The bast is made into rough string, notably used for tying sheaves of rice. The bark yields a wax of limited use.

A small, dioecious, deciduous tree, 15(-18) m tall; trunk diameter up to 20(-25) cm. Leaves spirally arranged, entire or palmately lobed; stipules lanceolate, about 1 cm long; petiole 1.5-5 cm long; blade ovate, elliptical or obovate, 9-27 cm × 4.5-16 cm, base symmetrical, usually cuneate, apex shortly acute, densely velvety hairy below, sparsely hairy above, lateral veins 4-6 pairs. Fruit an axillary syconium, in pairs, ovoid to globose, 8-10 mm in diameter, velvety yellowish hairy, ripening yellow and then red, basal bracts persistent; fruit stalk up to 5 mm long. Plants from Java and Sumatra differ from those from elsewhere in the hairs being soft, not irritating and leaves being more often palmately lobed than entire. F. fulva is a common species throughout its range, in Malaysia especially so in secondary forest.

6, 20, 28, 29, 71, 161, 194.

M. Brink, P.C.M. Jansen & C.H. Bosch