Ficus microcarpa

Ficus microcarpa, also known as Chinese banyan, Malayan banyan, Indian laurel, curtain fig, or gajumaru (ガジュマル), is a tree in the fig family Moraceae. It is native in a range from China through tropical Asia and the Caroline Islands to Australia. It is widely planted as a shade tree and frequently misidentified as F. retusa or as F. nitida (syn. F. benjamina).

Description

Ficus microcarpa is a tropical tree with smooth light-gray bark and entire oblanceolate leaves about 2-2.5 inches (5–6 cm) long which in Mediterranean climates grows to about forty feet (twelve meters) tall and with an equal spread of crown. Where conditions are favorable for the banyan habit (tropical and humid subtropical) it grows much larger, producing great numbers of prop roots.

The largest known specimen is Auntie Sarah’s Banyan at the Menehune Botanical Gardens near Nawiliwili, Kauai, Hawai’i which is 110.0 feet (33.53 meters) in height, 250 feet (76.2 meters) in crown spread, and having over one thousand aerial trunks.

The F. microcarpa with the thickest trunk is also in Hawai’i, at Keaau Village, Puna District, on the Big Island. Its main trunk is 28.0 feet (8.53 meters) thick at breast height. It is also 195.0 feet (59.44 meters) in limb spread. Only slightly smaller is the “Banyan at Lomteuheakal” in Vanuatu, a F. microcarpa with a main trunk 27.15 feet thick (26 meters circumference).

Cultivation

Ficus microcarpa is cultivated as an ornamental tree for planting in gardens, parks, and in containers as an indoor plant and bonsai specimen. In Southeast Asia, it is cultivated as a shade tree because of its dense foliage. Its ability to produce discards also makes it easy to drive in hedge or bush.

As a tropical and subtropical tree, it is suitable for temperatures above 20 °C all year long, which explains why it is generally sold as a houseplant. It can, however, withstand relatively low temperatures, suffering damage only below 0 °C. High humidity (70% – 100%) is preferable and seems to favor the development of aerial roots. The species can be propagated easily by cuttings, either in water or directly in a substrate of sand or potting soil.

Ficus Emerald Green is an Australian cultivar with glossy, green foliage and upright growth habit that can be used in a formal garden setting as a hedgerow. The cultivar can also be trained to look similar to a ‘lollipop’ in a container.

Medicine

The plant is also used in traditional medicine in India, Malaysia, China and Japan. In Japan, the bark, the aerial roots and dried leaves are traditionally used against pain and fever, while in China the plant is traditionally used among others against the flu, the malaria, bronchitis and rheumatism. The pharmacological properties of Ficus microcarpa would include antioxidant activities, antibacterial, anticarcinogen and anti diabetic agents.^{[medical citation needed]}

Ecology

The pollinating fig wasp associated with Ficus microcarpa is Eupristina verticillata. In addition, 19 non-pollinating fig wasp species parasitize Ficus microcarpa figs.
These fig wasps are from different families, which include those of the Eurytomidae and Pteromalidae families.

In some parts of its introduced range, it is very attractive to avian wildlife: in São Paulo, Brazil, ten species of birds were listed as feeding on its fruits, especially Turdus rufiventris, Pitangus sulphuratus, Turdus leucomelas, Thraupis sayaca and Celeus flavescens. Its fruit and leaves are also sought after and eaten by the parrot Aratinga leucophthalmus. Although invasive, its hardiness makes it an important species for the attraction of avian wildlife in urban environments.

Taxonomy

Ficus microcarpa was described in 1782 by Carl Linnaeus the Younger. The species has a considerable number of synonyms. In 1965, E. J. H. Corner described seven varieties (and two forms of Ficus microcarpa var. microcarpa) which were regarded as synonyms under the name of Ficus microcarpa in the latest^[which?] Flora Malesiana volume.

Hill’s weeping fig was first formally described as a species, Ficus hillii, by Frederick Manson Bailey in the Botany Bulletin of the Queensland Department of Agriculture, based on the type specimen collected in the “scrubs of tropical Queensland'”. In 1965, it was reassigned by E. J .H. Corner as a variety of F. microcarpa, namely F. microcarpa var. hillii.