Ficus tinctoria (PROSEA)

Plant Resources of South-East Asia Introduction

List of species

Ficus tinctoria J.G. Forst.

Family: Moraceae

Synonyms

• Ficus gibbosa Blume,
• Ficus parasitica Willd.,
• Ficus chlorosykon Rechinger,
• Ficus gibbosa Blume,
• Ficus neoebudarum Summerh.

Vernacular names

• Humped fig-tree (En)
• Indonesia: ara kuning (Kalimantan), kijajawo, pereng, panggang, bunut, karang (Java)
• Malaysia: ara bereteh (Peninsular), sinu (Dayak, Sarawak). Burma (Myanmar): mai-hai
• Papua New Guinea: tagataga (Pidgin)
• Philippines: baleting-bato (Tagalog), biri, laban (Bisaya)
• Laos: hai
• Thailand: krang (central), sai-dam, hai (northern)
• Vietnam: sung bầu, sung bụi.

Distribution

From India, Sri Lanka and Burma (Myanmar) to southern China, Taiwan, Indo-China, Thailand, the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, throughout the Malesian region towards Micronesia, Polynesia and northern Australia. It is the most widely distributed Ficus species.

Uses

Young shoots are eaten cooked or roasted, especially on New Ireland. Fruits are said to be edible. The bark is rich in tannin and suggested for making bark-cloth for binding books.

Observations

• Large tree, up to 45 m tall, epiphytic when young, developing many slender aerial roots from the trunk together with many host-strangling basketing roots.
• Leaf-blade narrowly elliptical, 8-21 cm × 2-9 cm, generally unequally sided and distinctly angled; petiole 0.5-1 cm long.
• Fruit a fig, subglobose, ca. 1 cm in diameter, orange.

Often on rocky sea coasts, in primary and secondary forest, up to 1200 m altitude. The species is very variable and is sometimes divided into 4 subspecies: ssp. tinctoria (from Taiwan, through the Philippines, the Moluccas, Sulawesi and New Guinea to Polynesia); ssp. gibbosa (Blume) Corner (Thailand, Indo-China, Malaysia, Java, Sumatra); ssp. parasitica (Willd.) Corner (Sri Lanka, India, Burma, Indo-China); ssp. swinhoei (King) Corner (Taiwan, the Philippines).

Selected sources

7, 20, 24, 26, 29, 36.