Ficus auriculata

Cultivation Details

A plant of the moist, lowland tropics, where it is found at elevations up to 1,700 metres. It grows best in areas where annual daytime temperatures are within the range 15 - 25°c, but can tolerate 12 - 32°c^[1]. Mature plants can be killed by temperatures of -2°c or lower, though new growth can be severely damaged ay 0°c^[1]. It prefers a mean annual rainfall in the range 1,200 - 1,900mm, but tolerates 900 - 2,400mm^[1]. Succeeds in full sun and in light shade^[1]. Prefers a pH in the range 5.5 - 6.5, tolerating 5 - 7^[1]. Prefers loose, moist soils with lots of organic matter^[1]. The plant needs protection from drying winds^[1]. Plants have a moderate rate of growth^[1]. When pollinated with a small stick dipped in olive oil, the fruits are said to grow to 10cm in diameter^[2]. The fruits are formed in large clusters on the trunk, on thin branches arising from the trunk or even on the roots of the plant. The base, therefore, is often covered with hundreds of fruits^[1]. 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^[3].