Ficus nervosa

Heyne ex Roth.

Kurbo, Jiu ding rong

Moraceae Edible: Leaves, Fruit 1,467 iNaturalist observations

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Summary

Ficus nervosa is a tree in the family Moraceae which grows up to a height of 35 metres. It is native to southern China, Taiwan and tropical Asia. The tree is grown in coffee plantations for shade.

Description

A fig. It is a tree. The leaf stalk is 1-2 cm long. The leaf blade is oval and 6-15 cm long and 2.5-5 cm across. It is thinly leathery. It is dark green on top and dark with small scattered lumps underneath. The base is round, the edges curl and the tip is sharp. There are 7-11 side veins each side of the main vein. These are easy to see underneath. The figs occur either singly or in pairs in the axils of leaves. They are round and 1-1.2 cm across. They are lumpy when young. They do not have a stalk but the fruit narrow looking like a stalk. Male, gall and female flowers occur in the same fig.

Edible Uses

The ripe fruit are eaten raw and are sweet. Young leaves are eaten fresh as a vegetable.

Traditional Uses

The ripe fruit are eaten. They are sweet. The young leaves are eaten fresh as a vegetable.

This uses section is brief — help expand it

Distribution

A tropical plant. They grow between 400-1600 m altitude in S China.

Where It Grows

Asia, Andaman Is, Bhutan, China, Himalayas, India, Indochina, Laos, Myanmar, Nepal, Northeastern India, SE Asia, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Vietnam,

Cultivation

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.

Other Uses

The tree is grown to provide shade in coffee plantations in Sri Lanka.

Production

In southern China plants flower from January to August.

Notes

There are about 800-1000 Ficus species. They are mostly in the tropics. There are 120 Ficus species in tropical America.

Synonyms

Ficus blinii H. Leveille & VaniotUrostigma nervosum (Roth.) Miquel

Also Known As

Khanpati dimoru, Mai-hong, Nyaung-peinne, Thebu

References (6)

Awasthi, A.K., 1991, Ethnobotanical studies of the Negrito Islanders of Andaman Islands, India - The Great Andamanese. Economic Botany 45(2) pp274-280.
Flora of China @ efloras.org Volume 5
Patiri, B. & Borah, A., 2007, Wild Edible Plants of Assam. Geethaki Publishers. p 136
Sarma, H., et al, 2010, Updated Estimates of Wild Edible and Threatened Plants of Assam: A Meta-analysis. International Journal of Botany 6(4): 414-423
Suksri, S., et al, 2005, Ethnobotany in Bung Khong Long Non-Hunting Area, Northeast Thailand. Kasetsart J., (Nat. Sci) 39: 519-533

Show all 6 references