| Ficus bernaysii | |
|---|---|
Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Plantae |
| Clade: | Tracheophytes |
| Clade: | Angiosperms |
| Clade: | Eudicots |
| Clade: | Rosids |
| Order: | Rosales |
| Family: | Moraceae |
| Genus: | Ficus |
| Subgenus: | F. subg. Sycomorus |
| Species: | F. bernaysii |
| Binomial name | |
| Ficus bernaysii | |
| Synonyms [2] | |
| |
Ficus bernaysii is a lowland rainforest tree in the family Moraceae, native to an area from New Guinea to the Solomon Islands. It is dioecious, and grows cauliflorous fruit. It is fed on by a wide range of animals.
Ficus bernaysii is in the section Sycocarpus of the dioecious fig subgenus Sycomorus. [3]
The species was described by the Scottish botanist George King (1840-1909), who worked in India from 1866 to 1898. [4] He was important in the cultivation of Cinchona and in distributing quinine. The formal description of F. bernaysii is held to be in the periodical Journal of The Asiatic Society of Bengal (Part 2: Natural History) in 1887. In his 1886/7 publication On Some New Species of Ficus from New Guinea, he states that the species is named after Mr. L. Bernays, of Brisbane, "whose efforts for the exploration of New Guinea, and for the development of his own colony of Queensland are so well-known." [5] See Lewis Adolphus Bernays (1831-1908), public servant, for comparison.
Ficus bernaysii is a tree growing up to 15m tall. [6] The leaves range from (sub)distichous to supopposite. The white to brown stipules are 0.5 to 2 cm long. The tree has abundant cauliflorous fruit growing the length of the trunk. [7]
Ficus bernaysii is native to New Guinea, the Bismarck Archipelago and the Solomon Islands. [1]
Ficus bernaysii often occurs in secondary regrowth patches in high densities, [7] but also occurs in primary forest. [8]
In the primary and old secondary forest amongst the lowland rainforest near Baitabag, Ohu and Mis villages, Madang Province, PNG., the most frequent trees were Macaranga novoguineensis , Pimelodendron amboinicum , Ficus bernaysii, Ficus phaeosyce and Ficus wassa . [9]
The taxa is a source of food for Dobsonia minor (lesser bare-backed fruit bat) and is parasitized by the wasps Apocrypta meromassa Ulenberg 1985, and Ceratosolenm hooglandi [10] [11]
Ficus species have a specialised pollination system involving wasps of the Agaonidae family. In the Madang province of PNG the main pollinator is the Ceratosolen hooglandii wasp. [12] This species of wasp also pollinates Ficus hahliana . [7] Two other Ceratosolen species were observed pollinating F. bernaysii, though both species tended to concentrate other separate species of Ficus, Ceratosolen dentifer (who preferred Ficus hispida and Ceratosolen sp. ex Ficus morobensis (which mainly pollinated Ficus morobensis ). The concentration by wasp pollinators on separate species might explain the high rates of speciation in the closely related sections, subgenera and genus of Ficus. [7]
In the Madang area, the tree is a hotspot for the fruit bat Syconycteris australis (common blossom bat) which tends to feed on the fruit of this tree and those of Piper aduncum . [13]
The caterpillars of the generalist moth Homona mermerodes feed on the leaves of F. bernaysii, though they favour many other taxa. [14]
The moths Talanga sexpunctalis complex and Glyphodes margaritaria feed on the tree among other Ficus species, these are both parasitised by the wasp Colastomion masalaii , which frequents F. bernaysii. [15]
A range of Chrysomelid beetles, from generalist to specialist to rare feeders, are associated with the plant. [8]
Various guilds of herbivourous insects have been observed eating this taxa, including adult leaf-chewers, fruit-chewers, larval leaf-chewers, leaf-miners, phloem-suckers and xylem-suckers. [16]
Ficus is a genus of about 850 species of woody trees, shrubs, vines, epiphytes and hemiepiphytes in the family Moraceae. Collectively known as fig trees or figs, they are native throughout the tropics with a few species extending into the semi-warm temperate zone. The common fig (F. carica) is a temperate species native to southwest Asia and the Mediterranean region, which has been widely cultivated from ancient times for its fruit, also referred to as figs. The fruit of most other species are also edible though they are usually of only local economic importance or eaten as bushfood. However, they are extremely important food resources for wildlife. Figs are also of considerable cultural importance throughout the tropics, both as objects of worship and for their many practical uses.
Ficus macrophylla, commonly known as the Moreton Bay fig or Australian banyan, is a large evergreen banyan tree of the Mulberry Family (Moraceae) native to eastern Australia, from the Wide Bay–Burnett region in the north to the Illawarra in New South Wales, as well as Lord Howe Island where the subspecies F. m. columnaris is a banyan form covering 2.5 acres or more of ground. Its common name is derived from Moreton Bay in Queensland, Australia. It is best known for its imposing buttress roots.
Ficus rubiginosa, the rusty fig or Port Jackson fig, is a species of flowering plant native to eastern Australia in the genus Ficus. Beginning as a seedling that grows on other plants (hemiepiphyte) or rocks (lithophyte), F. rubiginosa matures into a tree 30 m (100 ft) high and nearly as wide with a yellow-brown buttressed trunk. The leaves are oval and glossy green and measure from 4 to 19.3 cm long and 1.25 to 13.2 cm wide.
Ficus citrifolia, also known as the shortleaf fig, giant bearded fig, Jagüey, wild banyantree and Wimba tree, is a species of banyan native to southern Florida, the Caribbean, Mexico, Central America, and northern South America south to Paraguay. It is distinguished from the closely related Florida strangler fig mainly by the finer veining in the leaves.
Syconium is the type of inflorescence borne by figs, formed by an enlarged, fleshy, hollow receptacle with multiple ovaries on the inside surface. In essence, it is really a fleshy stem with a number of flowers, so it is considered both a multiple and accessory fruit.
Ficus aurea, commonly known as the Florida strangler fig, golden fig, or higuerón, is a tree in the family Moraceae that is native to the U.S. state of Florida, the northern and western Caribbean, southern Mexico and Central America south to Panama. The specific epithet aurea was applied by English botanist Thomas Nuttall who described the species in 1846.
Ficus maxima is a fig tree which is native to Mexico, Central America, the Caribbean and South America south to Paraguay. Figs belong to the family Moraceae. The specific epithet maxima was coined by Scottish botanist Philip Miller in 1768; Miller's name was applied to this species in the Flora of Jamaica, but it was later determined that Miller's description was actually of the species now known as Ficus aurea. To avoid confusion, Cornelis Berg proposed that the name should be conserved for this species. Berg's proposal was accepted in 2005.
Ficus dammaropsis, called kapiak in Tok Pisin, is a tropical fig tree with huge pleated leaves 60 cm (24 in) across and up to 90 cm in length. on petioles as much as thirteen inches long and one inch thick. These emerge from a stipular sheath up to fourteen inches long, the largest of any Dicot. It is native to the highlands and highlands fringe of New Guinea. It generally grows at altitudes of between 850 and 2,750 metres. Its fruit, the world's largest figs (syconia), up to six inches in diameter, are edible but rarely eaten except as an emergency food. They are pollinated by the tiny wasp Ceratosolon abnormis. The young leaves are pickled or cooked and eaten as a vegetable with pig meat by highlanders.
Ficus insipida is a common tropical tree in the fig genus of the family Moraceae growing in forest habitats along rivers. It ranges from Mexico to northern South America.
Ficus pleurocarpa, commonly known as the banana fig, karpe fig or gabi fig, is a fig that is endemic to the wet tropical rainforests of northeastern Queensland, Australia. It has characteristic ribbed orange and red cylindrical syconia. It begins life as a hemiepiphyte, later becoming a tree up to 25 m (82 ft) tall. F. pleurocarpa is one of the few figs known to be pollinated by more than one species of fig wasp.
Ficus watkinsiana, commonly known as strangler fig, Watkins' fig, nipple fig or the green-leaved Moreton Bay fig is a hemiepiphytic fig that is endemic to Australia. The species exists in three populations—one in northeast Queensland and the others in southeast Queensland and northeast New South Wales. It also has been introduced to Kauai island (Hawaiʻi).
Ficus obliqua, commonly known as the small-leaved fig, is a tree in the family Moraceae, native to eastern Australia, New Guinea, eastern Indonesia to Sulawesi and islands in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. Previously known for many years as Ficus eugenioides, it is a banyan of the genus Ficus, which contains around 750 species worldwide in warm climates, including the edible fig. Beginning life as a seedling, which grows on other plants (epiphyte) or on rocks (lithophyte), F. obliqua can grow to 60 m (200 ft) high and nearly as wide with a pale grey buttressed trunk, and glossy green leaves.
Ficus septica is a shrub or tree of the family Moraceae living at low altitudes from northeast India to north Australia (Queensland), and throughout Malesia. It lives on the edge of the vegetation, often in degraded environments. The seeds of this species are dispersed by numerous species, including fruit bats (Megachiroptera) when present.
Ficus variegata is a well distributed species of tropical fig tree. It occurs in many parts of Asia, islands of the Pacific and as far south east as Australia. There is a large variety of local common names including common red stem fig, green fruited fig and variegated fig. A non strangling fig which may reach 30 metres in height. The tree is evergreen when young but becomes briefly deciduous as it grows older. In Australia the fruit are eaten by cassowaries and double-eyed fig parrots.
Ficus sur, with the common names Cape fig and broom cluster fig, is a widespread Afrotropical species of cauliflorous fig.
Ceratosolen is an Old World wasp genus in the family Agaonidae. They are pollinators of the monoecious fig subsections Sycomorus and Sycocarpus, and the section Neomorphe, all belonging to the subgenus Sycomorus. The genus is native to the Palearctic, Afrotropical, Indomalayan and Australasian realms.
Sycophaga is a mainly Afrotropical gall wasp genus of the superfamily Chalcidoidea that live on the section Sycomorus of the monoecious fig subgenus, Sycomorus, and one of several fig wasp genera to exploit its mutualism with Ceratosolen wasps.
The genus Ficus is composed of 800 species of vines, shrubs, and trees, defined by their syconiums, the fruit-like vessels that either hold female flowers or pollen on the inside. In addition to being cultivated by humans for thousands of years, Ficus is also known for their reproductive mutualism with the fig wasp.
Macaranga novoguineensis is a species of tree in the Euphorbiaceae family. It is native to New Britain and New Guinea. It is a late succession plant, and supports a variety of insect herbivores, including caterpillars from the moth Homona mermerodes.
A tree in the Moraceae family, Ficus phaeosyce grows in eastern New Guinea, endemic to the nation of Papua Niugini. It is a shade tolerant understorey species, locally very abundant. A range of insect herbivores feed on the plant.
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