Flora of North America species comparison

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Ficus carica

Ficus benghalensis

common fig, edible fig, fiku, piku

banyan tree, Indian banyan
Habit Shrubs or small trees, deciduous, to 5 m. Roots not adventitious. Trees, evergreen, to 30 m. Roots aerial, often descending to ground level and forming pillar-roots Bark of trunks and older branches brown, smooth.
Bark

grayish, slightly roughened.

Branchlets

pubescent.

puberulent, glabrescent in age.
Leaves

blade obovate, nearly orbiculate, or ovate, palmately 3-5-lobed, 15-30 × 15-30 cm, base cordate, margins undulate or irregularly dentate, apex acute to obtuse;

surfaces abaxially and adaxially scabrous-pubescent;

basal veins 5 pairs;

lateral veins irregularly spaced.

blade ovate, 10-30 × 7-20 cm, leathery, base cordate, margins entire, apex obtuse;

surfaces abaxially puberulent, adaxially glabrous;

basal veins (2-)3-4 pairs, 1/3-1/2 length of blade, reticulations regular;

lateral veins 5-6(-7) pairs.
Syconia

solitary, sessile, green, yellow, or red-purple, pyriform, 5-8 cm, pubescent;

peduncle ca. 1 cm; subtending bracts ovate, 1-2 mm;

ostiole with 3 subtending bracts, umbonate.

paired, sessile, orange or red, depressed-globose, 1.5-2 × 2-2.5 mm, pubescent; subtending bracts ovate, 3-7 mm, puberulous;

ostiole closed by 3 flat or nearly umbonate apical bracts 3-4 mm wide.

Ficus carica

Ficus benghalensis
Phenology Flowering spring–summer. Flowering all year.
Habitat Disturbed sites Disturbed thickets
Elevation 0-300 m (0-1000 ft) 0-10 m (0-0 ft)
Distribution
from FNA
CA; FL; MA; NC; SC; Mexico; West Indies; native to Asia [Introduced in North America]
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
from FNA
FL; Asia (native to Pakistan and India) [Introduced in North America]
[BONAP county map]
Discussion

Ficus carica is known to escape in Alabama, Louisiana, Texas, Virginia, and West Virginia, although no specific localities are documented.

Ficus carica was first known from Caria in southwestern Asia. It is cultivated for its edible fruit and becomes established outside of cultivation only sporadically in the United States. It can sometimes be found persisting around old habitations and old orchards.

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Source FNA vol. 3. FNA vol. 3.
Parent taxa Moraceae > Ficus Moraceae > Ficus
Sibling taxa
F. americana, F. aurea, F. benghalensis, F. benjamina, F. citrifolia, F. elastica, F. microcarpa, F. pumila, F. religiosa
F. americana, F. aurea, F. benjamina, F. carica, F. citrifolia, F. elastica, F. microcarpa, F. pumila, F. religiosa
Name authority Linnaeus: Sp. Pl. 2: 1059. (1753) Linnaeus: Sp. Pl. 2: 1059. (1753)
Web links 
Unless otherwise noted, all data comes from the online version of the Flora of North America, who have made most of their content available via a Creative Commons license (CC BY 4.0).



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