Ficus minahassae (PROSEA)

Plant Resources of South-East Asia Introduction

List of species

Ficus minahassae (Teijsm. & de Vriese) Miq.

Family: Moraceae

Vernacular names

• Indonesia: mahangkusei, tambing-tambing, weren kuse (Minahassa)
• Malaysia: tapian dawit (Sabah)
• Philippines: alomit (Igorot), hagumit (Tagalog), sabfog (Bontoc).

Distribution

Northern Borneo, Sulawesi, Talaud Islands (Indonesia) and the Philippines.

Uses

The bast is made into ropes and was formerly made into barkcloth (Sulawesi). The leaves are used to treat rheumatic complaints. The fruits are edible.

Observations

A small, dioecious, tree up to 15(-25) m tall, sometimes with stilt roots. Leaves spirally arranged; stipules ovate or lanceolate, 2-5 cm long; petiole 3.5-10 cm long; blade ovate, (9-)13-30 cm × (5-)7-20 cm, base rounded or cordate, apex acute or acuminate, rough hairy above, yellowish soft-hairy below, with 7-11 pairs of lateral veins. Fruit a syconium, obconical, 5-6 mm in diameter, with 3 persistent basal bracts, glabrous or finely pubescent, ripening red, in small clusters along leafless twigs hanging from trunk and larger branches. In the Philippines F. minahassae is found in primary forest at low and medium altitudes, mainly along streams.

Selected sources

19, 28, 71, 161.

Authors

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