Ficus retusa (PROSEA)

Plant Resources of South-East Asia Introduction

List of species

Ficus retusa L.

Protologue: Moraceae

Synonyms

Ficus truncata Miq.

Vernacular names

• Malaysia: ara jejawi (Peninsular)
• Philippines: balete (Tagalog), marabutan (Bagobo).

Distribution

From India and southern China, throughout South-East Asia, to Australia and New Caledonia.

Uses

The latex has been used to produce rubber, although three quarters of the latex is resin. The powdered adventitious roots are used in Peninsular Malaysia to treat toothache. In India roots and leaves are applied to wounds and bruises, bark and leaves for headache, juice from the leaves externally for colic and juice from the bark internally for liver disease.

Observations

Tree up to 18 m tall, with aerial roots and milky latex; twigs with prominent projections of stipular rings and petiolar scars. Leaves alternate; stipules large and persistent; petiole up to 2 cm long; blade oblanceolate to narrowly obovate, 5-15 cm × 3-6 cm, base narrowed and 3-veined, apex rounded to bluntly pointed, secondary veins 5-8 pairs, all veins prominent below. Inflorescence an axillary fig, subglobose to obovoid, 1 cm in diameter, sessile, yellow-red, often in pairs and crowded. F. retusa grows in open lowland forest, brushwood and near rivers.

Selected sources

5, 11, 27, 36, 45.