Ficus barclayana
(Miq.) Summerhayes
Losilosi
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Maika Maika Tupua
Description
A fig. It is a shrub or small tree. It grows 1-10 m high. It is slender and can have many branches. The figs are green or yellow but ripen to red or purple. They can be 18 mm across. They are usually in the axils of leaves. The fruit occur throughout the year.
Edible Uses
Fruit. The figs, at first green to yellow, become reddish to purple or brown at maturity and may attain a diameter of 18 mm€. Leaves - cooked. Generally, only the very young leaves of Ficus species would be used.
Traditional Uses
The figs can be eaten.
This uses section is brief — help expand it
Medicinal Uses
The leaves are a very good styptic. Mixed with those of other plants, they are made into a decoction used internally as a treatment for stomach ailments. Applied externally, the leaves are made into a poultice that is appled to sore legs, varicose veins, bleeding wounds etc. An infusion of the leaves is a good wash for inflamed eyes. The fruits are put into teeth cavities.
Distribution
A tropical plant. In Fiji it can grow from sea level to 1,050 m altitude. It can grow in dense or open forest.
Where It Grows
Fiji, Pacific,
Cultivation
The plant can produce fruit all year round. Fig trees have a unique form of fertilization, each species relying on a single, highly specialized species of wasp that is itself totaly dependant upon that fig species in order to breed. The trees produce three types of flower; male, a long-styled female and a short-styled female flower, often called the gall flower. All three types of flower are contained within the structure we usually think of as the fruit. The female fig wasp enters a fig and lays its eggs on the short styled female flowers while pollinating the long styled female flowers. Wingless male fig wasps emerge first, inseminate the emerging females and then bore exit tunnels out of the fig for the winged females. Females emerge, collect pollen from the male flowers and fly off in search of figs whose female flowers are receptive. In order to support a population of its pollinator, individuals of a Ficus spp. must flower asynchronously. A population must exceed a critical minimum size to ensure that at any time of the year at least some plants have overlap of emmission and reception of fig wasps. Without this temporal overlap the short-lived pollinator wasps will go locally extinct.
Notes
There are about 800-1000 Ficus species. They are mostly in the tropics. There are 120 Ficus species in tropical America.
Synonyms
Also Known As
Drauniwamasi, Loselose, Masi, Masi-masi, Ndrau ni wa masi, Vuaitamona
References (4)
- Clarke, W.C. & Thaman, R.R., 1993, Agroforestry in the Pacific Islands: Systems for sustainability. United Nations University Press. New York. p 78
- Parham, H. B. R, 1940, Supplement to the Journal of the Polynesian Society No. 16. Fiji Plants: Their Name and Uses.
- Smith, A.C., 1981, Flora Vitiensis Nova: A New flora of Fiji, Hawai Botanical Gardens, USA Vol 2 p 189
- Walter, A. & Sam C., 2002, Fruits of Oceania. ACIAR Monograph No. 85. Canberra. p 279
