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Ficus lutea
Moraceae FAMILY

Ficus lutea

Ficus lutea

Edibility
2/5
Medicinal
2/5

Safety & Hazards

None known

Cultivation Details

HabitSemi-deciduous Tree
Growth—

A plant of the moist tropics. It grows best in areas where annual daytime temperatures are within the range 22 - 30°c, but can tolerate 15 - 35°c[1]. It prefers a mean annual rainfall in the range 1,800 - 2,400mm, but tolerates 1,500 - 2,700mm[1]. Prefers a sunny position but also succeeds in light shade[1]. Succeeds in a wide range of fertile, well-drained soils[1]. Tolerant of strong winds and salt spray[2].Prefers a pH in the range 4.5 - 5, tolerating 4 - 5.5[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].

Propagation

Seed - germinates best at a temperature around 20°c[4]. Sow the seed in containers, only covering them very lightly with compost and firming them down gently. Place in a lightly shaded position, water well, but do not wash the seed away!. Germination times may vary from 10 - 30 days, and after around one week of growth the seedlings are best moved into a sunny position. Pot up into individual containers when large enough to handle[2]. Air layering[4]. Tip cuttings around 4 - 12cm long, taken from lateral branches[4]. Cite as: Tropical Plants Database, Ken Fern. tropical.theferns.info. 2026-02-20. <tropical.theferns.info/viewtropical.php?id=Ficus+lutea>

Pollinators

Wasps

References

  1. [1]Ecocrop — http://ecocrop.fao.org/ecocrop/srv/en/home ↩︎Basic information on a wide range of useful plants, plus details of environmental needs where available.
  2. [2]PlantZAfrica.com — http://www.plantzafrica.com ↩︎An excellent site giving detailed descriptions and uses of many S. African plants.
  3. [3]Global Invasive Species Database — http://www.issg.org/database/welcome/ ↩︎Very detailed information on almost 400 species (with more being added) of plants that have become weeds in areas outside their native range.
  4. [4]The New RHS Dictionary of Gardening. 1992. — Huxley. A. · MacMillan Press · 1992 · ISBN 0-333-47494-5 ↩︎Excellent and very comprehensive, though it contains a number of silly mistakes. Readable yet also very detailed.
  5. [5]The Useful Plants of West Tropical Africa. — Burkil. H. M. · Royal Botanic Gardens; Kew. · 1985 - 2004 ↩︎Brief descriptions and details of the uses of over 4,000 plants. A superb, if terse, resource, it is also available electronically on the Web - see http://www.aluka.org/
  6. [6]Mansfeld's Database of Agricultural and Horticultural Plants — http://mansfeld.ipk-gatersleben.de/pls/htmldb_pgrc/f?p=185:3:4292127278597336 ↩︎Terse details of a huge range of useful plants.
  7. [7]Protabase - Plant Resources of Tropical Africa. — http://www.prota.org ↩︎An excellent on-line database with detailed information on over 3,200 species of useful plants of Africa.
  8. [8]Field Guide to the Moist Forest Trees of Tanzania. — Lovett J.C.; Ruffo C.K.; Gereau R.E.; Taplin J.R.D · Frontier · http://www.york.ac.uk/res/celp/webpages/projects/ecology/tree%20guide/introduction.htm · ISBN 1-873070-33-0 ↩︎A lovely little book giving a basic identification guide to more than 650 species of trees growing in Tanzania. It is also available to view on the internet.
  9. [9]Adansonia Vol. 8. — Museum National d'Histoire Naturelle; Paris. · 1986 · http://www.biodiversitylibrary.org ↩︎Contains, amongst others, a treatment of the genus Ficus (Figs) in Madagascar and Mauritius. It can be downloadd from the Internet.
  10. [10]Trees and Shrubs of the Sahel. Their Characteristics and Uses. — von Maydell H. · Deutsche Gesellschaft fur Technische Zusammenarbeit; Germany · 1990 · ISBN 3-8236-1198-4 ↩︎A well-researched book, usually with more than one photograph of each species and good information on the plant and its uses.
  11. [11]Dictionary of Economic Plants. — Uphof. J. C. Th. · Weinheim · 1959 · ISBN - ↩︎An excellent and very comprehensive guide but it only gives very short descriptions of the uses without any details of how to utilize the plants. Not for the casual reader.