Ficus tinctoria

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Dye fig
Ficus tinctoria.jpg
Scientific classification Red Pencil Icon.png
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Eudicots
Clade: Rosids
Order: Rosales
Family: Moraceae
Genus: Ficus
Subgenus: F. subg. Sycidium
Species:
F. tinctoria
Binomial name
Ficus tinctoria
Synonyms [2]
List
    • Ficus altimeraloo Roxb. ex Miq.
    • Ficus altimeraloo var. laeta (Decne.) Miq.
    • Ficus antoniana Elmer
    • Ficus chlorosykon Rech.
    • Ficus excelsa (Miq.) Miq. nom. illeg.
    • Ficus fenicis Merr.
    • Ficus laeta Decne.
    • Ficus michelii H.Lév.
    • Ficus neoehudarum Summerh.
    • Ficus reticulosa Miq.
    • Ficus swinhoei King
    • Ficus tinctoria var. neoehudarum (Summerh.) Fosberg
    • Ficus tinctoria subsp. swinhoei (King) Corner
    • Ficus tinctoria subsp. tinctoria
    • Ficus validinervis F.Muell. ex Benth.

Ficus tinctoria, also known as dye fig, or humped fig is a hemiepiphytic tree of genus Ficus . It is also one of the species known as strangler fig . [3]

Contents

It is found in Asia, Malesia, northern Australia, and the South Pacific islands. [3] It grows in moist valleys. [4]

Palms are favorable host species. Root systems of dye fig can come together to be self sustaining but the epiphyte usually falls if the host tree dies or rots away. [5]

In Australia it is recorded as a medium-sized tree with smooth, oval green leaves. [3] It is found often growing in rocky areas or over boulders. [3] The leaves are asymmetrical. [6]

The small rust brown fruit of the dye fig are the source of a red dye used in traditional fabric making in parts of Oceania and Indonesia.

The fruit is also edible and constitute as a major food source in the low-lying atolls of Micronesia and Polynesia. [7]

Subspecies

Ficus tinctoria subsp. gibbosa is an accepted subspecies. [8]

Related Research Articles

<i>Ficus</i> Genus of flowering plants in the mulberry family Moraceae

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.

<i>Ficus macrophylla</i> Species of banyan tree

Ficus macrophylla, commonly known as the Moreton Bay fig or Australian banyan, is a large evergreen banyan tree of the 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. Its common name is derived from Moreton Bay in Queensland, Australia. It is best known for its imposing buttress roots.

<i>Ficus rubiginosa</i> Species of flowering plant in the family Moraceaea native to eastern Australia

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.

<i>Ficus benjamina</i> Species of fig

Ficus benjamina, commonly known as weeping fig, benjamin fig or ficus tree, and often sold in stores as just ficus, is a species of flowering plant in the family Moraceae, native to Asia and Australia. It is the official tree of Bangkok. The species is also naturalized in the West Indies and in the states of Florida and Arizona in the United States. In its native range, its small fruit are favored by some birds.

<i>Ficus microcarpa</i> Species of fig

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.

<i>Ficus aurea</i> Species of strangler fig

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.

<i>Ficus insipida</i> Species of fig tree from the Neotropics

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.

<i>Ficus americana</i> Species of fig tree native to the Neotropics

Ficus americana, commonly known as the West Indian laurel fig or Jamaican cherry fig, is a tree in the family Moraceae which is native to the Caribbean, Mexico in the north, through Central and South America south to southern Brazil. It is an introduced species in Florida, USA. The species is variable; the five recognised subspecies were previously placed in a large number of other species.

<i>Ficus pleurocarpa</i> Species of epiphyte

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.

<i>Ficus obliqua</i> A tree, the small-leaved fig

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.

<i>Ficus henneana</i> Species of epiphyte

Ficus henneana is a strangler fig only occurring in Australia. Previously considered a variety of Ficus superba which occurs in China, Japan and parts of South East Asia. The cedar fig or deciduous fig grows in Australia from Milton, New South Wales to northern Queensland and the Northern Territory. The habitat is riverine, littoral or the drier forms of rainforest. The fruit is considered edible for humans, but it is not particularly palatable.

<i>Wrightia tinctoria</i> Species of flowering plant

Wrightia tinctoria, Pala indigo plant or dyer's oleander, is a flowering plant species in the genus Wrightia found in India, southeast Asia and Australia. It is found in dry and moist regions in its distribution. Various parts of the plant have been used in traditional medicine, but there is no scientific evidence it is effective or safe for treating any disease.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fig</span> Species of flowering plant known as the common fig

The fig is the edible fruit of Ficus carica, a species of small tree in the flowering plant family Moraceae. Native to the Mediterranean and western Asia, it has been cultivated since ancient times and is now widely grown throughout the world, both for its fruit and as an ornamental plant. Ficus carica is the type species of the genus Ficus, containing over 800 tropical and subtropical plant species.

<i>Ficus septica</i> Species of fig

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.

<i>Ficus auriculata</i> Species of fig

Ficus auriculata is a type of fig tree, native to Asia, noted for its big and round leaves. This is used as fodder in Nepal. It is least resistant to fire, but likes good sunlight.

<i>Ficus altissima</i> Species of fig

Ficus altissima, commonly known as the council tree and lofty fig, is a species of flowering plant, a fig tree in the family Moraceae. It is a large, stately evergreen hemiepiphyte and is native to southeastern Asia.

<i>Eucalyptus capillosa</i> Species of eucalyptus

Eucalyptus capillosa, commonly known as wheatbelt wandoo, or mallee wandoo, is a species of tree or mallee that is endemic to Western Australia. It has smooth, grey bark, lance-shaped to elliptic adult leaves, spindle-shaped flower buds in groups of nine to thirteen, white flowers and barrel-shaped to cylindrical fruit.

<i>Ficus coronulata</i> Species of fig

Ficus coronulata, commonly known as the peach-leaf fig, and in the Northern Territory as river fig and crown fig, is one of several fig species commonly known as sandpaper figs. It is native to Western Australia and the Northern Territory.

<i>Eucalyptus diversifolia</i> Species of eucalyptus

Eucalyptus diversifolia, commonly known as the soap mallee, coastal white mallee, South Australian coastal mallee, or coast gum is a species of mallee that is endemic to an area along the southern coast of Australia. It has smooth bark, lance-shaped adult leaves, flower buds in groups of between seven and eleven, white to creamy yellow flowers and cup-shaped fruit.

<i>Ficus amplissima</i> Species of fig tree

Ficus amplissima, also known as the Indian Bat tree, Indian Bat fig, Pimpri, Pipri (Piparee), Pipali or Bilibasari mara is a tree species of flowering plants that belongs to Moraceae, the fig or mulberry family. It is native to Central and southern Peninsular India, Sri Lanka and Maldives, having a significant distribution throughout Western Ghats of India. It is most commonly planted to provide shade in coffee plantations due to its dense and wide foliage. The ripened figs attract many birds, especially during the spring.

References

  1. Botanic Gardens Conservation International (BGCI).; IUCN SSC Global Tree Specialist Group (2019). "Ficus tinctoria". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species . 2019: e.T143277299A143295549. doi: 10.2305/IUCN.UK.2019-1.RLTS.T143277299A143295549.en . Retrieved 19 November 2021.
  2. "The Plant List: F. tinctoria" . Retrieved 22 April 2018.
  3. 1 2 3 4 "Ficus tinctoria". Australian Tropical Rainforest Plants (RFK8). Centre for Australian National Biodiversity Research (CANBR), Australian Government . Retrieved 21 April 2021.
  4. "Ficus tinctoria in Flora of China @ efloras.org". www.efloras.org. Retrieved 2022-09-05.
  5. Liu W., Wang P., Li J., Liu Wenyao, and Li Hongmei (2014), Plasticity of source‐water acquisition in epiphytic, transitional and terrestrial growth phases of Ficus tinctoria, Ecohydrol., 7; pages 1524–1533, doi : 10.1002/eco.1475
  6. Janet Franklin; Gunnar Keppel; W. Arthur Whistler (2008). "The vegetation and flora of Lakeba, Nayau and Aiwa Islands, Central Lau Group, Fiji" (PDF). Micronesica. 40: 169–225. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2012-02-13.
  7. "Mati - Te Māra Reo". termarareo.org. Retrieved September 30, 2020.
  8. "The Plant List: F. tinctoria subsp. gibbosa" . Retrieved 22 April 2018.