Moreton Bay Fig

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The Moreton Bay Fig Ficus macrophylla, is a large evergreen tree. Named after Moreton Bay in Queensland, Australia, it is a native of most of the eastern coast, from the Atherton Tableland in the north to the Illawarra in New South Wales.

The Moreton Bay Fig grows to over 60 m (200 ft) tall in its native environment. It has large, elliptic, leathery, dark green leaves and produces a [barely] edible fruit similar to the common Fig, Ficus carica.

The characteristic "melting" appearance of the Moreton Bay fig is due to its habit of dropping aerial roots from its branches which on reaching the ground thicken into supplementary trunks which help to support the great weight of its crown.

It is a rainforest plant and in its environment more often grows in the form of a strangler vine than that of a tree. When its seeds land in the branch of a host tree it sends strangler roots down the host trunk, eventually killing the host and standing alone.

Its roots are surface feeding and it is therefore quite susceptible to the compacting of earth around its trunk, which is why in many parks and gardens these trees are fenced off. It is water hungry and like many Australian trees should not be planted in urban environments where its roots may damage piping, nor in areas where water is scarce.

Moreton Bay Fig in a park of Palermo

References

Ficus macrophylla
Orto botanico di Palermo

George, A. S. Flora of Australia, CSIRO Publishing, 1980. ISBN 0643057021

Starr F, Starr K, and Loope L. [Ficus macrophylla - Moreton bay fig - Moraceae] United States Geological Survey--Biological Resources Division Haleakala Field Station, Maui, Hawai'i

Jousselin E., Rasplus J. and Kjellberg F. [Convergence and coevolution in a mutualism: evidence from a molecular phylogeny of Ficus]. Evolution, 57(6), 2003, pp. 1255–1269

Dixon, D. J. 2001. [Figs, wasps and species concepts: a re-evaluation of the infraspecific taxa of Ficus macrophylla (Moraceae: Urostigma sect. Malvanthera)]. Austral. Syst. Bot. 14:125–132.

Gardner R.O., Early J.W. [The naturalisation of banyan figs (Ficus spp., Moraceae) and their pollinating wasps (Hymenoptera: Agaonidae) in New Zealand] New Zealand Journal of Botany, 1996, Vol. 34: 103-110

External links

[The Santa Barbara Fig Tree]

[Ficus macrophylla - Gallery]

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Moreton Bay Fig

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