Ficus carica
Common name
fig
Family
Moraceae
Flora category
Vascular – Exotic
Structural class
Trees & Shrubs - Dicotyledons
Habitat
Terrestrial. waste places, scrubland.
Features
Deciduous, dioecious shrub or small tree up to 10 m high. Young stems +/- glabrous to moderately hairy, becoming glabrous. Leaves sparsely to moderately hairy above, often densely hipsid below, usually deeply palmately 3-7 lobed and irregularly serrate or crenate, broadly ovate, obtuse to cordate and symmetric at base, c. 10-25 cm long; veins usually not prominently raised; petiole < blade; stipules 2 per node, glabrous, oblong, caducous. Inflorescence sparsely hairy, pyriform, green, shortly pedunculate. Syncarp green to purplish, 5-8 cm long; achenes irregularly ovoid to subglobose, c. 2mm long. (Webb et al 1988).
Flowering
December, January, February
Year naturalised
1870
Origin
S. Europe, W. Asia
Etymology
ficus: The Latin name for fig tree, possibly derived from the Hebrew word fag
Reason For Introduction
Ornamental
Life Cycle Comments
Perennial.
Reproduction
Spreads vegetatively, doesn’t set seed.
Dispersal
F. carica is cultivated for its edible fruits, spread is largely by humans.